Wait … Libra is still doing things?
Indeed it is, as evidenced by new reports that Libra is hiring James Emmett, formerly of HSBC Bank, to serve as managing director of Libra Networks LLC.
“The Libra Association, of which Facebook is a member, is an independent membership organization based in Geneva created to govern the Libra stablecoin network,” writes Marie Huillet at Cointelegraph. “Libra Networks is responsible for developing and operating the cryptocurrency payments system, and was originally established as a Facebook subsidiary in May 2019. Ownership of the firm was later transferred to the Libra Association in October of that year.”
After 25 years at the bank that’s become famous for anti-money laundering investigations into its operations, Emmett will join an arm of the Libra Association which still wants to build a international stablecoin despite considerable pushback from regulators in important nations.
On its website, Libra is still claiming that it’s going to eventually provide opportunities to an estimated 1.7 billion people who are unbanked around the world.
Citing the slowness and cost of existing international payment transactions, Libra continues to push its global utility, despite a hard pass from both US and European legislators in the past few years.
“Provide people everywhere access to safe and affordable financial services,” reads Libra’s new white paper online. “So people everywhere can live better lives … Moving money around the world should be as easy and cheap as sending a message. No matter where you live, what you do, or how much you earn.”
If anything, Libra seems to have mainly served as a warning to national leaders about what could happen if a global stablecoin eclipses the fiat currencies now used to run national economies. We’re seeing countries slowly warm up to CBDCs, mostly as a deterrent to free reign by some kind of impending global digital coin.
So while Libra remains optimistic, many traders aren’t so sure. For investors, it might make more sense to consider being secondary markets, or smaller players who aren’t so much in the crosshairs of decision-makers around the world.
