PANews reported on December 1st, according to Theblock, that a former Facebook executive revealed that the company's stablecoin and blockchain project (originally called Libra, later renamed Diem) ultimately came to an end, leading many employees to leave and turn to other blockchain projects. The project was sold to Silvergate Bank in January 2022, which abandoned the project a year later and wrote off its investment. According to David Marcus, the former head of the project and a former board member of Coinbase, the behind-the-scenes political maneuvering is the root cause of the project's failure, which he referred to as "100% political murder" in a lengthy post on X. "The government or regulators had no legal or regulatory grounds to stifle the project. This is 100% political stifling—enforced through intimidation of controlled banking institutions."
David Marcus stated that despite "...two years of uninterrupted work and transformation to placate legislators and regulators," and receiving limited support from some members of the Federal Reserve Board including Chair Jay Powell, the project's political prospects still face strong resistance from Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, who warned Powell during a biweekly meeting not to let the project continue due to concerns it could provoke political backlash.