Facebook’s cryptocurrency pound is slated to be released in January, the Financial Times reported on Friday (27), citing three sources involved in the project.
The Geneva-based Libra Association, which will issue and manage the pound, plans to launch a single digital currency with dollar support, the London newspaper said, citing one of the sources.
The change would mean reducing the project’s ambitions in response to a regulatory and policy response.
The pound announced by Facebook last year was changed after regulators and central banks around the world raised concerns that the currency could disrupt financial stability.
The Libra Association, of which Facebook is one of 27 members, is asking the Swiss market regulator for the green light to issue a range of “stablecoins” supported by individual traditional currencies, as well as a token based on “stablecoins” which is indexed coins.
Stable coins are supposed to avoid the typical volatility of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and theoretically make them better suited for payments and money transfers. We are a family business.
However, under the agency’s new plan, other currencies backed by traditional currencies would be introduced at a later date, as well as the digital network.
The Libra Association did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In April, the Swiss regulatory authority FINMA did not issue a declaration of receipt of Libra’s application for a payment license.