Facebook’s plans to launch the Libra cryptocurrency has encountered intense regulatory pressure. Essentially, the governments of the world are generally viewing Libra as a threat to national fiat currencies and the global financial system, and this has scared away some of Libra’s key members.

The biggest credit card companies in the Western World, Visa, and MasterCard have officially announced that they are no longer going to be members of the Libra association. Simultaneously, major online auction house eBay has also exited the Libra Association, in addition to payment processors Stripe and Mercado Pago.

Apparently, this decision to leave follows letters from Senators to Visa, Mastercard, and Stripe indicating that their businesses would come under increased scrutiny if they went forward with their decision to be a part of the Libra Association.

When the Libra Association was first announced there were 28 members, with the goal of reaching 100 members, where each member would pay USD 10 million each and would be a node on the Libra cryptocurrency network. With the exit of these 5 major companies, there are only 23 members left, including Facebook and its cryptocurrency oriented subsidiary Calibra.

It remains to be seen if Libra will launch as planned in 2020, since first Libra must be approved by regulators, and so far regulators have been aggressively opposed to Libra.

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