Facebook (FB) made waves in the cryptocurrency space on Tuesday when reports surfaced that it is exploring blockchain with a new team run by one of its most visible executives.

With blockchain, a shareable electronic ledger that serves as an immutable record of users’ transactions — financial or otherwise — Facebook is exploring not only one of the hottest trends right now, but one that could have added benefits to users of the social network.

“Facebook has a huge stake in transactions with people and the way we really exchange ideas and goods online,” Omar Akhtar, an industry analyst with Altimeter Group, says. “People are already doing so much on Facebook. They’re selling their businesses, they’re buying goods, they’re paying each other. They’re calling each other. With cryptocurrency, Facebook is getting ahead of the curve. I wouldn’t say they’re going to innovate in the crypto space — they’re going to wait until something is more tangible that they can get into without a ton of risk. But it will be a while before that happens, and we might even see an acquisition or two.”

From Messenger to blockchain

After nearly four years, Messenger chief David Marcus is leaving his post to run the new unit, which will be composed of fewer than 12 employees, according to a Recode report. Marcus is known for growing Messenger from 200 million users to 1.3 billion-plus during his tenure, but he also has extensive experience in the payments space.

“David did a good job with growing Messenger into a platform with a lot of features, like payments and video chat,” said one former PayPal executive. “But David is a payments guy through and through. That’s what excites him the most these days.”

The 45-year-old serial entrepreneur, who joined the board of Coinbase in December, founded the payments startup, Zong, acquired by eBay (EBAY) for a reported $240 million, before running PayPal (PYPL) as president for well over two years. And according to three former PayPal executives, all of whom previously worked with Marcus, the outgoing Messenger chief in recent months has been captivated by the exploding cryptocurrency space.

Dana Stalder, a general partner at Matrix Partners, which invested in Zong in 2010, explains the move to head Facebook’s crypto unit makes sense for Marcus, given his entrepreneurial mindset and background.

“It’s a smart decision for Facebook to move one of its more forward-thinking executives into an emerging technology,” Stalder told Yahoo Finance. “It leverages David’s greatest strengths and keeps him fresh.”

Facebook declined to comment.