The head of Sweden’s Riksbank has characterized Facebook’s Libra project as “an incredibly important catalytic event” that is spurring the world’s central banks to ready themselves for digital transformation. In an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe on Oct. 15, Riksbank Governor Stefan Ingves said: “It has been an incredibly important catalytic event to sort of shake the tree when Libra showed up out of the blue, and that forced us to think hard about what we do.” Private vs. public, not digital vs. physical Speaking as the head of the central bank in a country where the cashless revolution …

The Libra Association, the governing body of Facebook’s proposed stablecoin, held its inaugural meeting today in Geneva, Switzerland. According to a report from Reuters on Oct. 14, the consortium reaffirmed their interest in creating a payments-oriented stablecoin that would be balanced by a basket of various, purportedly stable fiat currencies. Libra Association sets rules for governance In addition to explicitly stating their interest in the project, the consortium’s 21 members also formed a five-member board and agreed to interim articles of association which, according to Swiss law, must describe how the organization will be governed. Most major decisions will reportedly …

Leading online travel company Booking Holdings has ditched the Libra Association, the governing consortium of Facebook’s proposed Libra stablecoin. Booking Holdings has thus become the latest in an array of companies that abandoned the project, leaving it with 21 founding members out of the initial 28 organizations, Bloomberg reported on Oct. 14. A promising start Booking Holdings — which stands behind travel sites booking.com, priceline.com, agoda.com and Kayak, among others — became a founding member of the Libra Association in June. In August, Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel said that he believes that blockchain-based currencies will continue to grow and …

United States Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has attributed the recent spate of firms abandoning Facebook’s Libra stablecoin project to regulatory concerns. On CNBC’s Squawk Box on Oct. 14, Mnuchin stated that companies are abandoning the Libra project because it is “not up to par” with American Anti-Money Laundering standards, saying: “If they don’t meet the standards of our money-laundering standards and the standards that we have at FinCEN, we would take enforcement actions against them. I think they realized that they are not ready, they are not up to par and I assume some of the partners got concerned and …

Coinbase CEO has criticized United States’ senators for asking Stripe, Mastercard and Visa to leave Facebook’s crypto project Libra. “Something feels very un-American about this” After U.S. Senators Brian Schatz and Sherrod Brown apparently pressured the payment giants to leave Libra, Brian Armstrong, co-founder and CEO of major U.S. crypto exchange Coinbase, called the action “un-American” in a tweet on Oct. 13. Armstrong wrote: “Something feels very un-american about this. Two senators writing to Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe to ask them to withdraw from Libra.” Senators’ letter pushes payment giants to leave Libra On Oct. 8, senators Schatz and Brown …

Coming every Sunday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week U.S. SEC deems $1.7 billion Telegram offering illegal, orders halt In what may be the highest-level action it has ever taken, the SEC has halted the $1.7 billion digital token offering for Gram (GRM) tokens. In a massive setback for the upcoming Telegram Open Network (TON), the regulator has filed an emergency action and restraining …

Visa, EBay, Stripe and Mastercard have all announced that they are dropping out of Facebook’s Libra Association and its associated stablecoin project. Four companies abandon ship On Oct. 11, Bloomberg reported that Ebay, Stripe and Mastercard had decided to drop out of Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency project. Within minutes, Visa said it had also decided not to join the Libra Association, according to The Block. The news comes one week after payment processor PayPal announced its withdrawal from the Libra stablecoin project as regulators continue to scrutinize the project. The companies have expressed respect for Facebook’s vision and claim to see …

The founder of the OpenLibra project, Lucas Geiger, reportedly misrepresented some of the organizations involved in the project. OpenLibra founder apologized through Telegram On Oct. 11, Coindesk reported that at least four individuals and organizations denied the fact that they support the OpenLibra project. Others are minimizing their involvement in OpenLibra, which aims to become an alternative to Facebook's Libra. Ethereum developer Lane Rettig excitedly took to Twitter on Oct. 8 to share Geiger's announcement of OpenLibra at the Ethereum developer conference Devcon 5, in Osaka, Japan, adding: “Seeing #openlibra publicly announced for the first time is sending shivers down …

Finco Services of Delaware has initiated a lawsuit against Facebook in a New York court, Oct.10, over the swirly tilde logo Facebook uses for its Libra token. The plaintiff is also suing its former designer, who did the logo work for Facebook, for reusing the design. Looking for a logo Finco Services alleges trademark infringement, unfair competition, and “false designation of origin” against Facebook over its use of the swirly tilde logo. The company provides online banking services through a mobile app, doing business under the name Current. In 2016, it paid a company called Character SF to design a …

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on Oct. 23 regarding the firm’s proposed Libra stablecoin project. On Oct. 9, Congresswoman Maxine Waters officially announced that Zuckerberg will attend a congressional hearing entitled “An Examination of Facebook and Its Impact on the Financial Services and Housing Sectors.” Libra and Calibra moratorium The announcement notes that Waters and other Democrats on the commitee sent a letter to Facebook in July, requesting an immediate moratorium on the implementation of proposed cryptocurrency Libra and digital wallet Calibra. The statement also mentions the draft bill “Keep Big …

The United Kingdom’s central bank has established provisions that Facebook’s yet-to-be-released Libra stablecoin must comply with in order to be issued in the country. The Bank of England presented its latest Financial Policy Summary and Record at a Financial Policy Committee (FPC) meeting held on Oct. 9. The document — which addresses the resilience of the U.K. financial system in general — discusses innovative developments in the payments sector, noting that Libra has the potential to become “a systemically important payment system.” Launch of new payment systems The FPC pointed out that it would require payment systems like Libra to …

Lucas Geiger, co-founder of blockchain infrastructure startup Wireline, has announced OpenLibra — a permissionless fork of Facebook’s planned stablecoin. Ethereum developer Lane Rettig tweeted on Oct. 8 that OpenLibra was announced by Geiger at the Ethereum developer conference Devcon 5, adding: “Seeing #openlibra publicly announced for the first time is sending shivers down my spine. I am so excited about this initiative to ‘lock the door open’ for libra tech.” A more trustworthy environment for Libra apps OpenLibra’s developers have already released the first version of a permissionless Libra-based virtual machine on GitHub — known as MoveMint — that will …