Former Facebook executives revealed that the company's stablecoin and blockchain project (originally called Libra, later renamed Diem) was finally coming to an end, causing many employees to leave and switch to other blockchain projects. The project was sold in January 2022 to Silvergate Bank, which abandoned the project and wrote off its investment a year later. According to David Marcus, the former head of the project and a former Coinbase board member, behind-the-scenes political intrigue was at the root of the project's failure, with no legal or regulatory angle for the government or regulators to kill the project. This is 100% political strangulation - carried out by intimidating controlled banking institutions. "