Source: https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn%3Ali%3Ashare%3A6894890515330932736
#Facebook’s #Cryptocurrency #Venture to Wind Down, Sell Assets: #Diem #Association is selling its technology to crypto-focused bank Silvergate Capital for $200 million: Facebook’s ambitious effort to bring #cryptocurrency to the masses has failed. The #DiemAssociation, the #consortium Facebook founded in 2019 to build a #futuristic #payments #network, is winding down and selling its technology to a small California bank that serves #bitcoin and #blockchain companies for about $200 million. The bank, Silvergate Capital Corp. SI -5.42% , had earlier reached a deal with Diem to issue some of the #stablecoins—which are backed by hard #dollars and designed to be less #volatile than #bitcoin and other #digital #currencies—that were at the heart of the effort. The sale represents an effort to squeeze some remaining value from a venture that was challenged almost from the start. Facebook, now #MetaPlatforms Inc., launched the project in 2019 as Libra, pitching it as a way for the social network’s billions of users to #spend #money as easily as sending a #text #message. #Libra brought on well-known partners in e-commerce and payments including #PayPal Holdings Inc., #Visa Inc. and #Stripe Inc.—in part to signal buy-in from the finance industry and in part to distance the project from Facebook itself, which was under pressure about policing its platform. Partners agreed to join the #LibraAssociation, a Switzerland-based group that would govern the #stablecoin, and pony up millions of dollars each to develop the project. But it almost immediately ran into resistance in Washington. Officials voiced concerns about its effect on #financialstability and #dataprivacy and worried Libra could be misused by #money #launderers and #terrorist #financiers. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the #centralbank had serious concerns. Early backers dropped out, and #MarkZuckerberg was called before #Congress, where he defended Facebook’s plan to bring #financialservices to the world’s #underbanked.
