Facebook parent company Meta has exited cryptocurrency project Diem. Diem was founded under the name Libra by the group then known as Facebook and, as a stablecoin, was intended to be a safer alternative to more volatile cryptocurrencies.
Now Diem Association has confirmed that it is shutting down and has sold its Diem Payments Network assets for $200 million to Silvergate, a crypto-focused bank it had been working with since. The sale had already been rumoured at the end of January 2022.
Diem decided to cease its activity after it became clear to its members that federal regulators were not going to allow the project to go forward. In the official press release on the sale, the Diem Association does not go into details but says that the project was rated positively by the technical side.
However, its CEO, Stuart Levy, has indicated that they are “confident in the potential for a stablecoin operating on a blockchain designed like Diem’s to deliver the benefits that motivated the Diem Association from the beginning. With today’s sale, Silvergate will be well-placed to take this vision forward.”
This sale, yes, puts an end to Mark Zuckerberg’s dream of launching his own cryptocurrency through Facebook. A dream that he has been trying to make a reality for a little over two years now, with a project that has never been without controversy.
