Mark Zuckerberg’s cryptocurrency project Diem eyes asset sale

The Diem association, home to Meta platforms Inc honcho Mark Zuckerberg’s ambitious cryptocurrency stablecoin venture, is eyeing an asset sale more than two years after the project was launched, in order to monetize its intellectual property and any other economic value left in the crippled, formerly high-flying undertaking, per fortune.

In 2019, Meta first floated the idea of a steady digital currency or a stablecoin, with the intention of revolutionising global financial services, which would pan out as a collaborative effort between different companies.

Meta had then collaborated with Silvergate Bank to potentially issue a Diem USD stablecoin. Notably, stablecoins are less volatile compared to their other crypto counterparts, given that they are pegged to a specific asset class, which in case was the dollar.

But per reports, negotiations concluded unsuccessfully between Diem and Fed when the latter did not green light the proposal, leaving Silvergate unable to issue any asset without the fear of a fed crackdown looming large.

Notably, after Zuckerberg was called by the Federal Reserve to defend this project in the wake of rising regulatory investigation, Meta also saw the departure of its co-founder David Marcus, bringing down the scale of the scope of Diem drastically.