Facebook has warned its investors that its Libra stablecoin may never be released, CNBC reports on July 29. Engaging with regulator “critical to Libra’s success” Facebook told its investors in its latest quarterly report that — while the firm expects to launch Libra next year — some factors could prevent its release. Iin the risk factors section of the document, the company admits that it recognizes the significance of the pushback shown by regulators towards Libra. CNBC also reported that a Facebook spokesperson told the outlet on Monday that: “Engaging with regulators, policymakers, and experts is critical to Libra’s success. …

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 Facebook to work ‘however long it takes’ to win over regulators on Libra Mark Zuckerberg turned on the charm offensive this week in an attempt to reassure governments and central banks that his social network is taking their concerns about Libra to heart. On a conference call, he told investors that Facebook has changed — …

Alexander Lipton, a connection science fellow at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and adjunct professor of mathematics at New York University (NYU), has claimed that Libra’s white paper copied concepts for a coin proposed in his academic work. Lipton co-authored the paper “Digital trade coin: towards a more stable digital currency” in 2018. In a July 26 interview with CoinDesk, Lipton said: “Without being particularly obnoxious, I can tell you that the actual structure of Libra is pretty much lifted verbatim from the paper which Sandy Pentland and Thomas Hardjono and I published last year.” Additionally, Lipton noted that …

Galaxy Digital CEO Mike Novogratz argued that institutional interest would push Bitcoin (BTC) price back to its all-time highs of $20,000 before the end of 2019. Novogratz delivered his comments in an interview with Bloomberg on July 25. Speaking about where Bitcoin price will be going by the end of the year, Novogratz recalled the coin’s significant move from $4,000 to almost $13,500, further projecting that the price will likely consolidate in the range between $10,000 and $14,000. Novogratz thus reiterated the prediction he made in late June. He said that once institutions show increased interest in the cryptocurrency again, …

Online brokerage Monex Group Inc., owner of the hacked Japanese crypto exchange Coincheck, plans to join the Facebook Libra cryptocurrency project. A report from Cointelegraph Japan today, July 26, reveals that Monex Group's CEO Oki Matsumoto announced the company had filed an application to join the Libra Association during a press conference on Monex's Q2 2019 financial results earlier this week. The Libra Association is the newly-established, independent governance consortium for Facebook’s planned stablecoin, dubbed Libra, and is currently negotiating with a host of other potential members — including Visa, Uber, Mastercard and eBay. Entrance fees As Cointelegraph previously reported, …

The CEO of Chinese tech giant Huawei thinks that China can compete with Facebook for market share by issuing its own digital currency. Huawei CEO: “Why wait for others to issue it?” As national news outlet Sina reported quoting a press conference in Italy on July 18, Ren Zhengfei believes China can easily create a digital currency with the same value proposition as Facebook’s Libra. “China can also issue such a currency by itself. Why wait for others to issue it? The power of a country is always stronger than an Internet company,” he said responding to a question from …

Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of blockchain and crypto firm Ripple, is concerned about potentially stricter regulation for the digital currency industry that could result from Facebook’s not-yet-issued Libra stablecoin. Garlinghouse delivered his comments in an interview with Fortune on July 25. Garlinghouse said, "You just want to make sure that you don't get caught in the crossfire. It is important to me that when regulators start asking questions that they don't lump us into one big bucket." Libra helped XRP increase the number of contracts However, in an interview at Fortune Brainstorm Finance conference in June, Garlinghouse said that a cryptocurrency …

Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg said that the company will work as long as it takes to appease regulators’ concerns over its Libra stablecoin. Zuckerberg delivered his statements during the firms Q2 results conference call on July 24. During the call, Zuckerberg said that — some years ago — Facebook would have just released a new product without prior warning, but now the company has changed. More precisely, he stated: “We've opened a period of – however long it takes to address regulators and different experts and constituents’ questions about this and then figure out what the best way …

As countless eyes watched and followed the recent U.S. congressional hearings regarding Facebook-backed cryptocurrency Libra, it was evident that it will not be easy for the social media giant and the Libra Foundation to find a way of convincing the regulators of the merits their product could bring to the world. David Marcus, head of Facebook’s Calibra wallet that is built on blockchain technology, who has long been a leader in the centralized digital currency space, testified before the Senate Committee on Banking as well as the House Financial Services Committee. When asked challenging questions about Facebook’s plans for its …

Alfred F. Kelly Jr., the CEO of Visa, said that no companies have officially joined Libra. At this stage, the 20-some companies involved with the foundation have reportedly only declared interest via a nonbinding letter of intent. According to an apparent transcript of a Q3 2019 earnings call for Visa dated July 23, Kelly said: "We have signed a nonbinding letter of intent to join Libra. We're one of — I think it's 27 companies that have expressed that interest. So no one has yet officially joined." As per the transcript, Kelly was responding to an inquiry from Bryan C. …

Just 2% of Americans trust Facebook’s Libra more than major cryptocurrency Bitcoin (BTC), according to a recent survey by CivicScience. United States-based polling company CivicScience recently conducted a survey of 1,799 American adults to find out the general trends and public concerns over Facebook’s not-yet-launched cryptocurrency Libra. According to research results released on July 22, at least 40% of respondents claimed that they trusted Libra less than Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies such as Ether (ETH) and XRP. 35% stressed that they trust Libra much less than Bitcoin, according to the study. 39% of respondents stated that they were unsure regarding …

Among all the issues cropping up in Facebook's recent hearing in the United States Congress regarding its new Libra cryptocurrency, the matter of location was perhaps the thorniest. Testifying before various banking and financial committees, Libra co-creator David Marcus was repeatedly questioned as to why Facebook had decided to establish the subsidiary behind its newfangled stablecoin in Switzerland rather than good ol' America. Reps. Patrick McHenry, Josh Gottheimer and Bill Huizenga, for instance, all asked queries touching on the decision to set up abroad, insinuating in the process that Facebook is aiming to avoid American regulations and oversight, and inadvertently …