One of the biggest stories in 2019 in the world of business and finance concerns the launch of Facebook’s Libra. This is a new cryptocurrency that the social media giant has been developing over the past few months. Their original plan was to launch it in 2020. However, it would appear that might not happen. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in an interview recently that it might take much longer to launch Libra than was originally expected. Mark said that he wants to make sure the launch of Libra does not have any problems. Therefore, he does not want to rush anything.
The news that Libra might not be available next year had a negative impact on the cryptocurrency market as a whole. The value of Bitcoin has crashed. It is now worth around $8,200. Earlier this year, it had flirted with a value of $10,000. It is not a secret that Libra has a lot of very powerful people around the world who are against it. President Donald Trump had some very negative things to say about cryptocurrency a few months ago. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin said that he was uncomfortable with Facebook releasing their own cryptocurrency. He believes that it would have the power to destabilize the economies of countries around the world. There are many other world leaders who agree with his sentiments.
Zuckerberg did not say for certain that Libra would be delayed until after 2020. However, he did say it was a very real possibility. France and Germany have already been very clear about their intentions to block Libra from being used by the citizens of their respective countries. It is very possible that other countries will do the same thing. This made Zuckerberg fly to Washington and meet with many politicians including President Donald Trump. His meetings were about a wide variety of issues. However, the future of Libra is clearly Mark’s main concern.
Politicians are worried about Libra for a number of reasons. They do not want people to use it as a means to launder money or avoid paying taxes. There is also a major concern about people using Libra to the point where it makes the value of currencies around the world go down. This is a very real possibility because more than two billion people around the world use Facebook on a regular basis. Only time will tell if Libra becomes a reality.
