Facebook announced on Friday that its cryptocurrency Libra, will launch next January, according to The Financial Times. The Libra Association, which has 27 members including Facebook, was planning to launch digital versions of several traditional currencies. But now it is reportedly only planning to launch a single coin backed by the dollar.
According to CNBC, the scaling back of the project, which was started by a group of Facebook executives, comes after global regulators warned an influx of new libra coins could threaten monetary stability.
Meanwhile, Libra would operate as a digital currency, providing an alternative to the US dollar and other currencies managed by foreign governments. The Libra Association, an independent group organized by Facebook, would oversee the Libra token, which is starkly different from popular cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
Earlier, the former President Donald Trump attacked facebook for planning to create a digital currency called Libra, saying it would have “little standing or dependability.” Trump added: ''that he was “not a fan of Bitcoin and other Cryptocurrencies, adding that “unregulated Crypto Assets” can facilitate drug trade and other illegal activity.''
“Similarly, Facebook Libra’s ‘virtual currency’ will have little standing or dependability,” he said. “If Facebook and other companies want to become a bank, they must seek a new banking charter and become subject to all banking regulations, just like other banks, both national and international.”
In 2019, an official at France’s finance ministry said the country would not allow a private group to set up the equivalent of a national currency. “We will not allow private enterprises to give themselves the attributes of state sovereignty.
For French officials, a currency such as Libra issued by a company with hundreds of millions of customers would carry unacceptable systemic risks. It can also lead to money laundering and terrorism financing.
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