Hunter Horsley is the former product manager of Facebook. He now heads the Bitwise Asset Management firm and was largely responsible for the submittal of the company’s latest bitcoin-based exchange-traded fund (ETF) proposal that the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) so unceremoniously rejected.
Horsley Has His Own Thoughts on Libra
Libra – the famed cryptocurrency from Facebook that’s set for a 2020 debut – has been at the center of heavy attention as of late, and many regulators, analysts and crypto enthusiasts don’t really know what to make of the currency. Horsley says that while he’s confident Libra will have a big debut, it’s not likely to be available in all areas, and will be released in increments rather than all at once.
In a recent interview, he comments:
I do think Libra will launch, but I think will launch ex-US, in a jurisdiction like Switzerland or Singapore, and will not be widely available. I think it’s quite possible it will launch without Facebook’s involvement.
This will be quite interesting to see granted that Facebook is the company that’s been behind Libra the entire time. In fact, Mark Zuckerberg – the head executive of Facebook – recently underwent a congressional hearing in which he was questioned over not only Libra, but the company’s general plans for the financial industry in the coming months. There was a lot of anticipation regarding this hearing that proved too much for currencies like bitcoin to handle, which ultimately fell by more than $800 into the mid-$7,400 range.
However, the currency has proved its resilience once again and at press time, is now trading back above $9,000.
Libra has not had the most welcoming reception since it was first announced in June of 2019. Many companies that once formed the controversial Libra Association have since parted ways with the project. These companies include Mastercard, Stripe and even PayPal. The latter’s departure was especially upsetting considering it has not only been one of Libra’s biggest supporters, but its former executive David Marcus ultimately left his position with PayPal to serve as the head developer of Libra.
If such a company decided that staying with the Association wasn’t in its best interest, that probably wasn’t a great sign for Libra. Following all the controversy, Zuckerberg has since explained:
Facebook will not be part of launching the Libra payments system anywhere in the world until U.S. regulators approve.
Sadly, this could take a long time, or worst-case scenario, it might never happen.
It’s Not Going to Debut Like We Think
Horsley added to his comments by stating:
I wouldn’t be surprised if we don’t see [Libra] as it’s currently architected in 2020… We think Facebook will pivot Calibra… to using different coins, or even dollars to accomplish their goal of serving the unbanked. For that reason, we think this is actually great news for crypto.
