Meta closes its cryptocurrency project
The Diem Association division, founded in 2009, will sell all of its technology used for the Libra cryptocurrency to Silvergate Capital
Diem Association, the consortium founded in 2019 to build a payment network linked to the cryptocurrency promoted by Facebook, now called Meta, has reached an agreement to sell its technological assets to Silvergate Capital, an entity focused on bitcoin and blockchain companies, for 200 million dollars.
Initially called Libra, the company initially sought to create a digital currency backed by a basket of currencies, but ultimately opted, under pressure from regulators, to be backed solely by the dollar.
In 2020, the consortium hired Stuart Levey, a former US Treasury official and lead counsel for HSBC Holdings, as CEO and dropped the Libra name in favor of Diem.
Also, last May the group moved its operations from Switzerland to the US and announced that Silvergate would become the exclusive issuer of its stablecoin and manage its reserves.
However, the project has yet to gain approval from US regulators and David Marcus, the initiative’s founder, left Facebook late last year.
Thus, with the sale of its assets, the platform falls apart less than three years after the public presentation of Libra, the cryptocurrency backed by reserve assets aimed at users of Facebook and WhatsApp.
K. Tovar
Source: Forbes
