The Libra Association announces the addition of three companies to the cryptocurrency project— Temasek, Paradigm, and Slow Ventures.
The stablecoin has faced an uphill battle ever since Facebook announced its development. Quite a few financial ministers and lawmakers expressed concerns, even outright hostility, towards the upcoming cryptocurrency.
Even more troubling was that a number of major companies began to drop out of the Libra Association—the Geneva-based organization designed to manage the cryptocurrency.
PayPal, eBay, MasterCard, Stripe, Vodafone, and Visa all made the decision to leave the association even though they expressed positive thoughts about Libra’s goals.
Introducing the Libra Association
The Libra Association is announcing today its plans for a simple global currency and financial infrastructure. Find out more https://libra.org
Posted by Libra on Tuesday, 18 June 2019
Adding to the roster
Now it appears that the ship may be righting its course. Temasek is an investment company based in Singapore with US$219 billion [AU$340 billion] in its portfolio. Paradigm and Slow Ventures are both based in San Francisco.
Paradigm is a crypto-focused investment firm, while Slow Ventures is a venture capital business.
Dante Disparte, vice chairman and head of policy and communications for the Libra Association, remarks, “The addition of three new members to the Libra Association, shows our commitment to building a diverse group of organizations that will contribute to the governance, technological roadmap and launch readiness for the Libra payment system.”
Disparte adds, “We are honoured to welcome Temasek, Paradigm, and Slow Ventures to this effort. Each of these organisations shares our overall mission alignment bringing unique capabilities and long term focus on market development for blockchain and digital assets.”
Changing fortunes for the Libra Association?
The association has been busy lately with its latest development of adding Paradigm, Slow Ventures, and Temasek. Just over a week ago, the Libra Association announced a new CEO—Stuart Levey.
Just in! Libra Association adds 3 new members, including Singapore investing giant Temasek and crypto VC Paradigm pic.twitter.com/aN4Ww8gtlv
— Frank Chaparro (@fintechfrank) May 14, 2020
Levey had previously served the George W. Bush and Barack Obama administrations as the first Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. After his civil service, he became the Chief Legal Officer for HSBC Holdings, an international bank that has an operating income of $53 billion.
The appointment of Levey as CEO should have a calming effect upon regulators concerned about the stablecoin. He stressed that there would be “robust controls” to detect and combat illicit financial activity.
He also said, “I look forward to working closely with governments, regulators, and all of our stakeholders to realize this vision.”
Another recent development is that the Libra Association has initiated the payment system licensing process with FINMA (Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority). The process was started on April 16.
Images courtesy of Kinga/Shutterstock