eBay, Visa and Mastercard, and Stripe are the latest names who have pulled out their interest from Facebook’s proposed cryptocurrency, Libra. The announcement comes in a wake of PayPal’s decision of departing from Libra Association and the controversial Libra coin.
Ahead of launching Libra, Facebook has drawn heavy scrutiny from the global regulators and policymakers, notably in the United States (U.S) for its plan of launching Libra. When PayPal’s decision of withdrawing from Libra Association came into the picture, the more obvious reason that caught the attention of crypto community was “regulatory hurdles that Facebook is currently facing”.
It’s essential to note that the Libra Association’s founding members were now reduced to 23 from its original members 28. As per the latest report, the Credit giants Visa and Mastercard, digital payments firm Stripe and online marketplace eBay are the four companies that have changed their routes from Facebook’s vision of financing the unbanked and under-banked.
The decision of Mastercard leaving Libra arrived in an email, stating;
Mastercard has decided it will not become a member of the Libra Association at this time
Although, Visa appears to be dropping out of the alliance now but hints that it may rejoin the Libra Association in the future.
“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,”, Visa spokesperson said.
On the other hand, the online shopping giant eBay said that “they highly respect the vision of the Libra Association”, adding;
“However, eBay has made the decision to not move forward as a founding member. At this time, we are focused on rolling out eBay’s managed payments experience for our customers
Although companies appreciate the vision that Facebook but it appears that they don’t want to stay away from the substantial criticism that Facebook is currently facing over its plan of entering into the financial spectrum. Echoing a similar concern, Stripe also said that;
. “Stripe is supportive of projects that aim to make online commerce more accessible to people around the world. Libra has this potential. We will follow its progress closely and remain open to working with the Libra Association at a later stage.”
However, when Libra was first announced, the company has said that they’re expecting to launch this currency in early 2020 but with the ongoing regulatory hurdles and circumstances, it is quite difficult to even perceive Libra launch by next year. Conclusively, Facebook’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify Libra before the congressional committee on October 23, 2019.
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