In the past week, online payment leader PayPal announced that they were abandoning Facebook’s stablecoin currency project, Libra, joined now by eBay, Stripe, and Mastercard. The charter hasn’t even been signed yet, and these four founding members have already bailed.
In addition, Visa announced that they have “decided not to join the Libra Association at this time.” This leaves the association with no major US payment processor.
Shortly after these announcements Friday afternoon, Mercado Pago, Latin America’s largest payment facilitator, stated it will also leave the Libra Association.
In other bad news for the project, France and Germany both announced plans last month to block Libra from operating in Europe. And Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell “has cited serious privacy, money laundering, consumer protection and financial stability concerns that must be addressed before the project can advance.” Reuters
Adding insult to injury, Finco Services of Delaware launched a lawsuit against Facebook in a New York court, Oct.10, over the Libra logo. Finco Services claims trademark infringement and is also suing its former designer, Character SF, who created the logo for Facebook.
Today the Libra Association’s head of policy and communication, Dante Disparte, said the group is still moving ahead with its plans to formally charter the association. “We look forward to the inaugural Libra Association Council meeting in just three days (October 14) and announcing the initial members of the Libra Association.”
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook CEO, is expected to address the Libra project on October 23 when he testifies before the U.S. House Financial Services Committee.
For more background on Facebook’s Libra, check out our post “What is Facebook’s Libra Cryptocurrency?”