PayPal pulls out of association for Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency

PayPal has announced it will pull out of the Libra Association, the governance organization for the cryptocurrency developed by Facebook.

“PayPal has made the decision to forgo further participation in the Libra Association at this time and to continue to focus on advancing our existing mission and business priorities as we strive to democratize access to financial services for underserved populations,” a PayPal spokesperson said in a statement. “We remain supportive of Libra’s aspirations and look forward to continued dialogue on ways to work together in the future.”

PayPal had been one of 28 companies and nonprofits, including Facebook, set to be “founding members” of the Libra Association. Libra is a cryptocurrency developed by Facebook, but the company has said the Association would be an independent overseer of the currency.

Facebook has said Libra could help improve access to financial services. But since June, when Facebook announced Libra, the project has faced scrutiny and pushback from regulators around the world who are worried about its implications for consumer privacy, the possibility that it could be used to fund terror, and the sovereignty of government-backed currencies such as the dollar.

That pushback and the chance for increased regulatory scrutiny may have given Facebook’s partners pause.

“This journey to build a generational payment network like the Libra project is not an easy path,” Dante Disparte, head of policy and communications for the Libra Association, said in a statement. “We recognize that change is hard, and that each organization that started this journey will have to make its own assessment of risks and rewards of being committed to seeing through the change that Libra promises.”

Disparte said the remaining participating Libra Association companies plan to meet in 10 days, and that 1,500 other companies have expressed interest in joining the group.