Exodus reduces Libra members to 21 companies
The final membership roster of Facebook’s controversial cryptocurrency project Libra has been revealed, having taken a significant hit after several major players abandoned ship.
The Libra Association said 21 companies had signed the charter, committing to pay a $10m (£7.9m) founders’ fee and introduce a Libra incentive scheme, following a council meeting in Geneva.
Uber, Vodafone and Spotify remained among the original founding crop announced in June, but several notable names were missing.
The project faced a mass exodus as Booking Holdings quit the council earlier this evening, following in the footsteps of Visa, Ebay, Mastercard, Stripe, Paypal and Mercado Pago last week.
Read more: Booking.com owner becomes latest to abandon Facebook’s Libra
Naspers’ Payu is the only remaining payments company on the council, symbolising dwindling support among financial services firms for the project.
The final 21-strong council is as follows:
- Anchorage
- Andreessen Horowitz
- Bison Trails
- Breakthrough Initiatives
- Calibra
- Coinbase
- Creative Destruction Lab
- Farfetch
- Lliad
- Kiva Microfunds
- Lyft
- Mercy Corps
- PayU
- Ribbit Capital
- Spotify
- Thrive Capital
- Uber
- Union Square Ventures
- Vodafone
- Women’s World Banking
- Xapo
The board of directors will include Facebook’s Libra head David Marcus, as well as representatives from Andreessen Horowitz, Payu, Kiva Microfunds and Xapo.
Libra has faced significant scrutiny from regulators and rivals ahead of its intended launch in 2020, amid concerns over potential for money laundering and financial stability.
Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg will testify before US politicians on the project later this month.
Image credit: Calibra