The Diem Association will sell its technology to California bank Silvergate Capital for about US$200 million. (The Wall Street Journal)

Talking point: Since Facebook’s 2019 announcement of its plan to launch a cryptocurrency, it had faced opposition from governments around the world. The company originally designed the token—a stablecoin that would have been backed by a mix of real-world currencies—to be overseen by an outside foundation, the Libra Association (later renamed Diem Association), made up of large international companies, investment firms and non-profits including Shopify and the Creative Destruction Lab. But the project hit repeated setbacks, and late last year, David Marcus, a former head of Messenger who had been tapped to lead the effort, announced he was leaving the company. The token never launched, but the Diem Association’s demise doesn’t mean Meta is out of the cryptocurrency game entirely. It still has Novi, a digital wallet it has started to integrate into its apps. The wallet allows users to send and receive funds in USDP, a stablecoin developed by New York-based crypto firm Paxos.