cryptoglobe.com
On Monday (October 14), according to a report Bloomberg, Booking Holdings, the leader in online travel (owner and operator of some of the world's top travel websites, including Booking.com, Priceline.com, and Kayak.com), became the seventh founding member of the Libra Association to quit Libra, the Facebook-led stablecoin project.
On June 18, when Facebook first officially introduced Libra, we were told that the Libra Association is an independent not-for-profit membership organization headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland and that there were 28 founding members, "a group of diverse organizations from around the world."
On October 4, PayPal quit the Libra project.
Four days later, on October 8, two senior U.S. Senators—Brian Schatz (D-HI) and Sherrod Brown (D-OH)—wrote letters to the CEOs of Visa, Mastercard and Stripe in order to share their "deep concerns" about Libra and the Libra Association because important questions about the risks posed by this project "remain unanswered." They also wanted these companies to consider how would they be able to manage these risks before going ahead with this project given that Facebook has not yet proven to U.S. Congress or to financial regulators "that it is taking these risks seriously."
Then on October 11, five more organizations—Visa, Mastercard, eBay, Stripe, and Mercado Pago—followed PayPal's lead and withdrew from the Libra Association.
With seven of the original 28 founding members gone, it is tempting to think that Facebook has no choice but to throw in the towel and give up its dream of creating its own stablecoin. But despite these huge setbacks and the incredible amount of regulatory scrutiny that Facebook and Libra Association will continue to face over the coming months, Facebook's immense financial resources and determination should not be underestimated.
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