David Marcus, former leader of Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency project, has revealed the factors that led to the initiative’s demise.
According to Marcus, political pressure and the withdrawal of funding from supporting organizations played a key role in stalling the project despite its strong design and significant regulatory consultation.
How Facebook’s Libra was ‘Poliically Ended’
In a post on X (formerly Twitter) dated November 30, Marcus detailed the chain of events that led to Libra’s demise. This blockchain-based payment system, later renamed Diem, had the goal of revolutionizing global payments by combining a high-performance blockchain system with stablecoins.
However, Marcus claims that this failure has little to do with legal or regulatory issues. Instead, political forces play a decisive role.
“A basic point worth mentioning here. There is no legal or regulatory angle from which the government or regulator can kill the project. This is purely political murder – an act carried out through the threat of controlling banking institutions,” he said. stated.
Marcus revealed that Libra encountered opposition shortly after its announcement in 2019. Although the team made adjustments to address concerns and delayed the project’s launch to 2021, political opposition persisted. persistent. He highlighted a turning point when Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell reportedly changed his stance after meeting with Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen.
Marcus said Yellen called supporting Libra “political suicide,” leading the Fed to issue a warning to banks participating in the project. During the calls, the Fed’s legal counsel reportedly cautioned banks against moving forward with Libra, emphasizing mixed comfort with the project.
“The Fed held calls with all the participating banks, and the Fed’s legal counsel read a pre-prepared statement to each bank, saying: ‘We cannot stop you from going ahead and exiting. eyes, but we don’t feel comfortable about you doing that.’ And just like that, it was over,” Marcus declared.
Crypto industry figures have since backed what Marcus revealed. Kathryn Haun, a former Libra board member, and Tyler Winklevoss, co-founder of Gemini, both emphasized how political motives derailed Libra.
“Gemini worked closely with David and his team at Meta to help launch Libra (formerly Diem). We were almost done when federal regulators killed the project. It’s all politics, no legal basis,” Winklevoss declared.
Looking back on this experience, Marcus emphasized the need for decentralization in building future financial systems. He advocates Bitcoin as the ideal platform for such networks, citing its neutrality and non-interference.
“If you are trying to build an open currency network for the world—ultimately moving trillions of dollars every day and designed to last for 100 years—you have to build it on network and asset neutrality. , the most decentralized and uninterferable, is Bitcoin,” he concluded.
Marcus’s revelations add to the growing scrutiny over “funding” in the cryptocurrency and technology sectors. Recent allegations of politically motivated financial restrictions have further fueled discussions about the intersection of regulation, politics, and innovation in the United States.