Visa, Mastercard, eBay, and Stripe are all the latest companies to withdraw from the Libra Association, dealing a massive blow to Facebook’s international cryptocurrency plans.
Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe have all withdrawn just one week after PayPal decided it wasn’t going to play.
The news comes just a few days before the Libra Association meeting which is due to take place on October 14th in Geneva.
eBay has also rejected Libra.
“We highly respect the vision of the Libra Association,” eBay said in a statement – offering some praise for the group. “However, eBay has made the decision to not move forward as a founding member. At this time, we are focused on rolling out eBay’s managed payments experience for our customers.”
While eBay and others have withdrawn, it’s not necessarily all over yet for Libra – several companies could still end up changing their minds and joining the program. As of now, the companies are simply just refusing to be a founding partner.
Stripe echoed eBay by saying, “Stripe is supportive of projects that aim to make online commerce more accessible for people around the world,”
In a statement, The Libra Association’s Dante Disparte oddly thanked the companies for their support and said, “We are focused on moving forward and continuing to build a strong association of some of the world’s leading enterprises, social impact organizations and other stakeholders.
“We look forward to the inaugural Libra Association Council meeting in just 3 days and announcing the initial members of the Libra Association.”
Facebook’s Libra has found itself at the receiving end of mounting pressure from European regulators, the US Congress, and even private organizations – suggesting that Libra could be interpreted as a threat to global financial systems.
Just two days ago, Democratic senators encouraged Visa and Mastercard to reconsider their support of Libra, suggesting that payment processors could face regulatory action if they get involved.
“If you take this on,” the notices from Senators Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH) read, “you can expect a high level of scrutiny from regulators not only on Libra-related activities, but on all payment activities.”
However, it’s not just Democrats who have been critical of Libra – Republican Senator Josh Hawley has also described the Libra project as Facebook “expanding their monopoly.”
