DIEM Tried Selling Assets, Is It Giving Up On Its Stablecoin Plans?

DIEM tried selling assets according to a Bloomberg report but does this mean that the company is giving up on its stablecoin plans? Let’s find out in today’s altcoin news.

Facebook’s Diem has been flailing for more than two years now and the association behind the stablecoins is considering throwing in the towel. The Diem Association is now looking for ways to sell its assets and the stablecoin project weathered regulatory scrutiny as well as executive departures. DIEM tried selling assets but this could also mean that it is giving up on its stablecoin plans. The association led by Facebook and other venture capitalist is now contemplating selling off its intellectual property and other assets as a way to return capital to the investor members.

Any sale that hasn’t been confirmed by Diem or Facebook will spell the end of the Facebook crypto ambitions in the short term. Announced in 2019 to both confusion and fanfare, Libra was meant to be a stablecoin that is tied to a basket of global currencies. The coin’s construction meant that rather than mirroring the US dollar value as Tether does, Libra could become its own global currency managed by the Libra Association.

The US regulators were not happy. In a few months, the pressure from regulators and lawmakers caused the association members to bail on the project. In one day, Stripe, eBay, Mastercard, and Visa all resigned as founding members following PayPal’s lead the week before. Facebook stuck with it and rebranded the project to Diem, scaling the ambitions down from the dollar rival to a dollar-based stablecoin, going as far as to release the NOVI crypto wallet but as a wallet to hold the Paxos dollar rather than the Diem stablecoin.

Diem initially secured crypto bank Silvergate to issue the coin as the federal Reserve threw cold water ont the plan but this didn’t come as a surprise given that the US regulators like the US SEC and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency stepped up their efforts to regulate stablecoins in 2021. Diem was left out without executives and engineers which culminated in the departure of the founder David Marcus in 2021. Diem member Andreessen Horowitz hired two of the lead Novi wallet engineers away from the proejct and according to Bloomberg, discussions are still early and there’s no guarantee that Diem will find a buyer.