Vodaphone Leaves Libra Association, Launch Still Set for This Year

Vodaphone Group, a British telecommunications company, is leaving the Libra Association and is now the eighth company to do so, according to a new report from CoinTelegraph.

Following the likes of companies like PayPal, MasterCard, and eBay, Vodaphone is leaving Libra to focus more on its own project, M-Pesa, which is a digital payments solution for people in Africa. Essentially, all of the effort they would have put into Libra is now going towards their own project.

Speaking on the matter is a spokesperson from the company, who said in a statement to the publication:

“Vodafone Group has decided to withdraw from the Libra Association. We have said from the outset that Vodafone’s desire is to make a genuine contribution to extending financial inclusion. We remain fully committed to that goal and feel that we can make the most contribution by focusing our efforts on M-Pesa. We will continue to monitor the development of the Libra Association and do not rule out the possibility of future co-operation.”

There are many different groups that have left the Libra Association over the past year, and it leads one to question what could be going on over there. After all, Facebook’s stablecoin is still set to launch later in 2020, and the fact that companies are still leaving it during the year of launch doesn’t necessarily bode well for the project.

However, it’s worth noting that last week, Libra announced the start of an executive group that will oversee the project, so we might have to wait for an official statement before we get too speculative.