Days after PayPal announced that it was dropping out of Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency association, a host of other companies have opted out of the association. They include Mastercard, Visa and Ebay amongst others. This was expected from Mastercard and Visa as they had earlier indicated intention to leave.
Since Facebook announced that it would launch the cryptocurrency, Libra, in 2020, it had been greeted with skepticism. The US lawmakers asked Facebook to “immediately cease implementation plans”.
Even though Facebook said that Libra “will be regulated like other payment service providers” and firewalled off from Facebook itself, neither the House Financial Services Committee, led by Democrats, nor the Republican-controlled Senate Banking Committee, are convinced.
According to Visa in a statement, “Visa has decided not to join the Libra Association at this time. We will continue to evaluate and our ultimate decision will be determined by a number of factors, including the Association’s ability to fully satisfy all requisite regulatory expectations.”
eBay said via a statement, “We highly respect the vision of the Libra Association; however, eBay has made the decision to not move forward as a founding member.”
Despite the pullouts, Dante Disparte Libra’s head of policy and communication, said that Libra will press ahead with plans to formally charter the association in three days despite the setbacks.
“We are focused on moving forward and continuing to build a strong association of some of the world’s leading enterprises, social impact organizations and other stakeholders,” he said.
“Although the makeup of the Association members may grow and change over time, the design principle of Libra’s governance and technology, along with the open nature of this project ensures the Libra payment network will remain resilient.”
