Facebook crypto project Diem reportedly selling assets for $200m

Meta-backed crypto initiative ‘Diem’ could be planning to sell off assets worth $200m, minimising Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s ambitions for a stablecoin to act as the internet’s currency.

According to sources, Diem is currently negotiating with investment bankers regarding the sell-off of its intellectual property and finding a new workplace for the engineers who developed it in the first place.

One anonymous source said the buyer was California-based Silvergate Bank, that was meant to be the issuer of the Diem USD stablecoin.

In 2019, when Meta’s Facebook first unveiled the idea of its stable digital currencies aimed at revolutionising global financial services, they did so in collaboration with dozens of other companies.

However, after its CEO Zuckerberg testified in front of the Congress, some of big names started to leave the project before it changed its name from Libra to Diem.

At one July hearing in 2019, Senator Sherrod Brown of Ohio asked Diem’s founder David Marcus does he really think people should trust Facebook with their hard-earned money?

“If our country fails to act, we could soon see a digital currency controlled by others whose values differ radically from ours,” Marcus then responded.

Deterred by regulatory scrutiny and an ongoing strong resistance from the US Federal Reserve, Marcus left Meta as well.