Yesterday, The Information reported Facebook’s Calibra wallet would be abandoning the backed-by-a-basket-of-currencies Libra for a set of fiat-backed digital currencies for different regions.
The company quickly amended that while it would be launching those fiat-based digital currencies, it isn’t abandoning Libra. In this episode, @NLW argues these fiat digital currencies could be more readily adopted initially than Libra among Facebook’s existing user base.
India’s Supreme Court overturns a crypto banking ban while Facebook prepares fiat-pegged digital currencies alongside Libra.
Also on this episode, huge news out of India as its Supreme Court reverses a 2018 decision by the Reserve Bank of India to ban crypto banking. The move could breath life into an industry that has been largely shuttered in India since the initial ban.
Finally, a news roundup including a lawsuit against Twitter around de-platforming and a new router from HTC that can also run a bitcoin full node.
Prime Broker Tagomi Becomes 22nd Member of Facebook’s Libra Association
Crypto prime brokerage service Tagomi is joining the Libra Association, becoming the 22nd member and the second to join since the group was formally founded in October 2019.
According to TechCrunch, Tagomi is set to formally announce its intention to join the association later this week. It joins ecommerce platform Shopify, which announced it would join the group last week, joining a host of other crypto platforms, tech startups, non-profits and venture funds.
The additions come after a series of high-profile departures from the organization, most recently last month when Vodafone announced it was pulling out of the stablecoin project to focus on its own digital payments platform, M-Pesa.
Prior to its formation, a number of payments firms, including Mastercard, Visa and Stripe, publicly announced their withdrawals from the group. Unlike Vodafone, these companies’ withdrawals were thought to be due to regulatory concerns.
Tagomi President Marc Bhargava confirmed the news to CoinDesk. A spokesperson for the Libra Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Libra has been under sustained regulatory fire since its announcement by Facebook in June 2019. Regulators worldwide called for a moratorium on development and urged the social media giant to work with regulatory authorities at the time.
This furor does not appear to have calmed in the months since June. Earlier this month, European Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis said the Libra project «lacks detail,» according to a memo. However, Dombrovskis said the EU still intends to ensure Libra is compliant with the relevant laws and regulations once it launches.
