Are You A Libra?

If you’ve been wondering what the price of Bitcoin was, today it’s hovering around $10,150.

If you’ve been wondering what’s going on with Facebook’s cryptocurrency, Libra, you need only look so far as Basel, Switzerland.

According to a report in the Financial Times, Libra representatives are meeting with officials from 26 central banks (including the US Fed and the Bank of England) there today to “answer some difficult questions” about Facebook’s plans for the cryptocurrency.

European Central Banker Benoît Coeuré is chairing the meeting, and has warned in advance that Libra has to clear a “very high” bar, with EU finance ministers having concerns that Libra (and other CCs) could destabilize finance and undercut the authority of government banks. 

Facebook, conversely, has presented Libra as a means of democratizing money, and potentially providing banking to many who don’t currently have access. And, creating a format that’s independent of any single country.  

Coeuré in CNBC: “As a new technology, stablecoins are largely untested, especially on the scale required to run a global payment system. They give rise to a number of serious risks related to public policy priorities. The bar for regulatory approval will be high.”