Meta’s David Marcus departs firm, adding uncertainty to digital currency plans

Payments executive David Marcus, a co-creator of Meta’s yet-to-be-launched Diem cryptocurrency, announced he is leaving the company at the end of the year.

Why should we care?
Marcus joined Meta (formerly Facebook) in 2014 after a two-year stint at PayPal. He initially worked on the platform’s messenger service and moved to financial services in May 2018. Marcus’ time working on digital currencies at Meta has been fraught with false starts and opposition from governments: The company announced Diem (formerly known as Libra) and digital wallet Calibra (which was later renamed Novi) in 2019, with plans to go public with both products in 2020. Novi launched in October, while Diem hasn’t yet moved out of stealth mode. Meta’s efforts to move deeper into cryptocurrency and blockchain have faced strong concerns from regulators. “While there’s still so much to do right on the heels of hitting an important milestone with Novi launching — and I remain as passionate as ever about the need for change in our payments and financial systems — my entrepreneurial DNA has been nudging me for too many mornings in a row to continue ignoring it,” Marcus said in a statement.