Libra Creator David Marcus Says He’s Leaving Facebook at Year’s End

David Marcus is leaving Facebook (now Meta) with the company’s libra (now diem) stablecoin yet to be fully launched.

He said Tuesday on Twitter he was stepping down as Meta’s crypto lead and leaving the company, suggesting he’d return to his “entrepreneurial” roots.

Marcus leaves the Diem project, first announced in June 2019, as it continues to face stiff regulatory headwinds.

Marcus, a former president of PayPal, first joined Facebook as the vice president of the company’s Messenger division. He was tapped to lead Facebook’s blockchain efforts in mid-2018.

Libra, initially an ambitious plan to make sending money across borders as easy as sending a text, was immediately met with scrutiny following its 2019 announcement. Marcus was the face of Facebook on Capitol Hill as the company sought the blessing of U.S. regulators before launching.

Plans for Libra were scaled back through a series of cuts and the exodus of key corporate backers before being rebranded as Diem. Last month, Novi, the Meta-owned crypto wallet subsidiary, launched a pilot project that relied on the Paxos-administered USDP stablecoin instead of diem. Even this scaled-down pilot was met with hostility from lawmakers.

A Meta spokesperson confirmed that Stephane Kasriel, another PayPal alum, will be the new head of Novi.