PANews reported on December 1 that according to Theblock, a former Facebook executive revealed that the company's stablecoin and blockchain project (originally called Libra and later renamed Diem) eventually came to an end, causing many employees to leave and switch to other blockchain projects. The project was sold to Silvergate Bank in January 2022, which abandoned the project and wrote off its investment a year later. According to David Marcus, the former head of the project and former Coinbase board member, the political conspiracy behind the scenes was the root cause of the project's failure. He called it "100% political murder" in a long article in X. "There is no legal or regulatory angle for the government or regulator to kill the project. This is 100% political strangulation-executed by intimidating controlled banking institutions."
David Marcus said that despite "...two years of nonstop work and changes to appease lawmakers and regulators" and limited support from some members of the Federal Reserve Board, including Chairman Jay Powell, the project's political prospects still face strong resistance from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who warned Powell in a biweekly meeting not to let the project go forward for fear of political backlash.
