Meta-Backed Diem Association Confirms Asset Sale to Silvergate

(Bloomberg) -- The cryptocurrency project that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg took a beating from Congress on is officially over. The Diem Association has sold its intellectual property and other assets related to its payment network to Silvergate Capital Corp.

The effort, which was started by Facebook -- now Meta Platforms Inc. -- as a way to make payments and money transfers cheaper and faster, never got off the ground due to resistance from federal regulators, the association said in the statement. With the sale, the association will wind down, the statement said.

Bloomberg reported earlier that Diem was considering a sale of its assets as a way to return capital to its investor members. It was later confirmed that Silvergate agreed to buy Diem's assets for about $200 million. Diem didn't disclose terms of the sale.

The cryptocurrency initiative, first known as Libra, debuted in 2019. It was planning to use stable-value digital currencies -- stablecoins -- to revolutionize global financial services like remittances. It initially had several dozen partners, but many of them left soon after regulatory and political scrutiny of Libra began. The project eventually changed its name to Diem, and its ambitions were scaled back. Its founder, David Marcus, left Meta last year. The association struck an arrangement with Silvergate to issue Diem, but resistance from the U.S. Federal Reserve dealt the effort a final blow.

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