Meta’s crypto project Diem to shut down at what time pushback from regulators
Diem, the cryptocurrency project backed by Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, is shutting down. Diem’s CEO Stuart Levey announced on Monday the sale of Diem’s assets, citing continuing resistance from federal regulators.
Diem’s luminous property and other assets related to the running of the Diem Payment Network were sold to Silvergate Capital, according to a news release issued by the Diem Association, which oversees the digital currency. Last week, Bloomberg reported that Diem was considering liquidating its assets in well-organized to return capital to investors.
“As we undertook this misfortune, we actively sought feedback from governments and regulators in the world,” Levey said in a statement. “Despite giving us clear substantive feedback on the design of the network, it nevertheless earnt clear from our dialogue with [US] federal regulators that the project could not move ahead.”
The sale effectively puts an end to the Meta-backed cryptocurrency project. Meta, which until recently was known as Facebook, handed about a third of the funding for the project, according to unnamed sources cited in Bloomberg’s report. The rest of the allow came from a variety of investors including Uber, Shopify and Union Square Ventures.
“Today’s exclusive was made by the @DiemAssociation which is independent from Meta,” wrote Stephane Kasriel, head of Novi, Meta’s cryptocurrency wallet, in a series of comments posted on Twitter. “We hope that the Association’s sale of their assets to @silvergatebank will funding the project’s vision to live on.”
Kasriel added that Meta is proceeding to execute on its “existing fintech plans to execute economic opportunities and champion greater financial inclusion today, and as we look up to the metaverse.”
A spokesperson for the Diem Association declined to make further comments on the sale to Silvergate.
Since its inception, first under the name Libra in 2019, when Meta was collected called Facebook, Diem faced challenge after challenge. Five of its founding partners, including Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and eBay, left the project shortly at what time its launch. On the regulatory front, Meta’s crypto project handed to find favor among legislators in Washington, some of whom publicly urged Zuckerberg to end Diem.
The sale of Diem’s assets to Silvergate comes at a time when many anunexperienced companies, including Jack Dorsey’s Square, are unsheathing into crypto and the popularity of digital currencies is going mainstream.
