Libra has been a favorite target of world financial regulators since its announcement. European Central Bank members said it could destabilize the euro; China’s crypto czar called it potentially “unstoppable;” and US Congressional Representatives have called for an outright freeze on its development.
Major Libra backers Visa and Mastercard are second-guessing their participation in the Facebook-led digital payments project, the Wall Street Journal reported today.
Against a global regulatory blasting of the proposed cryptocurrency, the financial services pair and unnamed other companies are balking at Facebook’s call for a unified front. The Journal says that few want to boost the project publicly – leaving Facebook to defend Libra itself
Now, members of the Libra Association will meet on Thursday in Washington, D.C. It was not immediately clear what the meeting will be about; the members are scheduled to discuss Libra’s charter in mid-October.
David Marcus, who co-created Libra, took to twitter almost immediately defend Facebook’s crypto project.
2) change of this magnitude is hard and requires courage + it will be a long journey. For Libra to succeed it needs committed members, and while I have no knowledge of specific organizations plans to not step up, commitment to the mission is more important than anything else;
– David Marcus (@davidmarcus) October 1, 2019
“We’re very calmly, and confidently working through the legitimate concerns that Libra has raised by bringing conversations about the value of digital currencies to the forefront”, he wrote.
“Change of this magnitude is hard and requires courage + it will be a long journey. For Libra to succeed it needs committed members, and while I have no knowledge of specific organizations plans to not step up, commitment to the mission is more important than anything else.”
Interest in Gold-Backed Token Trading Grows Amid Supply Disruptions
As gold refiners work to ease acute supply shortages created by market shocks from the coronavirus crisis, trading interest in gold-back digital tokens seems to be growing.At the end of Q1 2020, gold markets faced a “historic squeeze.” Demand for the yellow metal grew acutely due to economic uncertainty while trading routes and refineries were cut off and shut down.
For digital assets markets, the situation has coincided with a growing interest in trading gold-backed tokens.
Tether Gold, the leading gold-back token measured by volume, launched in late January 2020. During Q1 2020, hourly trading volume for its new token bounced between a few hundred dollars and over $1 million.
On Thursday, hourly trading volume in Tether Gold climbed to over $13 million, up from roughly $1 million the day before, according to CoinGecko.
Tether CTO Paolo Ardoino told CoinDesk there is significant interest from hedge funds and professional traders in using Tether Gold to diversify their portfolio with gold, calling the yellow metal an asset that is “considered in a growth trajectory for the next period.”
The token’s hourly trading volume fell to around $2 million on Friday. Hourly trading volume for Paxos Gold, another gold-backed token, has stayed stable since January at around $1.5 million, according to CoinGecko.
“Inventory gets bought really quickly after each delivery of gold bars into the vault”, Tether’s Ardoino said. Tether stores its gold in Switzerland, and within the last few weeks, as lockdown measures have partially lifted, “more than 50 gold bars have been delivered and sold through Tether Gold”, he said.
