Under Pressure, Libra Ditches The Basket
Happy Thursday, Blockfolians
The Lede
When Libra was announced last summer, one of the most disruptive elements was that it was based on a basket of currencies, rather than pegged to a single currency. In this way, it echoed Keynes original failed idea for a supranational global reserve currency (which he called a ‘bancor’ - see where the name came from?) in the Bretton Woods system. Unsurprisingly, world governments (in particular the USA) did not like this plan.
Today, Libra made it official that they would be ditching the basket of currencies approach. Instead, they’ll focus on individual stablecoins pegged to existing fiat.
One outcome of the shift may be that Libra is in a position to capture business arising from governments that want private help building central bank digital currencies.
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Community Commentary
Podcaster, writer and market commentator Jared Dillian argues that with so much stimulus money sloshing around, people are starting to lose faith in the idea of fiat itself
Former CFTC head Christopher “Crypto Dad” Giancarlo says that we shouldn’t rush a digital collar because of COVID-19
A Really Big Number We Should Be Paying Attention To
$503.7 million
That’s new investment into Grayscale last quarter. Yowza!
Final Thought
Exactly.