Visa, Mastercard, Ebay, and Paypal have all withdrawn support for Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency, but Facebook is going ahead with its plans.
Back in May, global tech giant Facebook announced that it was in talks with the Bank of England and major payment providers Visa and Mastercard with plans to launch its own cryptocurrency in 2020. Referred to initially as GlobalCoin and later announced as Libra, the currency was proposed to be blockchain-based and integrated into Facebook and Whatsapp as a payment solution.
The scheme faced scrutiny from financial regulators in the US, who raised concerns over the risk that the virtual currency could be used for money laundering. Facebook has also faced intense scrutiny in recent months from the US Federal Trade Comission, which handed the tech giant a massive $5bn fine in June in response to high-profile data protection violations such as the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Libra faced a major setback this month when payment provider Paypal pulled its support for the crytocurrency and announced that a planned partnership with Ebay was cancelled. Now further payment solution giants have pulled their support, with Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe all withdrawing from the Libra Association.
Facebook is going ahead with its cryptocurrency plans and is holding the first meeting of the Libra Association with the remaining 21 founding companies. It plans to release the cryptocurrency on schedule next year.
