Intrigue around the Libra Association, the proposed governing body for Facebook’s coming Libra stablecoin, continues to grow.
The latest thread in that episode was unveiled in a July 26th Coindesk Japan report, which revealed that Oki Matsumoto — the president of Monex Group, the firm that owns the Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck — had confirmed the enterprise’s plans to join the Libra Association during a Friday company meeting.
Notably, membership in the association is a bit of an open question for now.
While Facebook announced the Libra earlier this summer as having major backers in giants like Visa and Mastercard, Visa chief executive officer Alfred Kelly Jr. noted this week that the body’s purported members have only yet committed to non-binding agreements, meaning the association technically has no members outside of Facebook’s brand at present.
According to Facebook’s vision for the Libra, the stablecoin will be backed by approximately 100 high-profile mainstream backers running validator nodes. The alleged price for running such a node? $10 million USD a pop.
With that said, that’s a price Monex is willing to pay if Monex president Matsumoto’s new comments are any indication. He said the firm will decide after the summertime whether to proceed with the plan or not.
If Monex makes it in, the development would likely prove to be a boon forward for Coincheck, which suffered the largest crypto exchange hack to date in January 2018.
If Matsumoto and his peers do in fact decide to push forward, it won’t be the first time that leadership from a popular cryptocurrency has signaled interest in joining the Libra Association.
Big Crypto Players Signalling Libra Interest
Notably, cryptoeconomy natives like Coinbase and Xapo were among the proposed inaugural group of Libra Association members.
Beyond the possible newcomer in Coincheck, Malta-based cryptocurrency exchange giant Binance has also been talking to Facebook about the Libra, both with regard to listing the stablecoin on a “secondary exchange” and in regard to Binance joining the Libra Association.
Specifically, Binance chief strategy officer Gin Chao has remarked in recent weeks that the exchange powerhouse was interested in becoming one of the 100 or so Libra validators.
“We’re definitely considering it,” Chao said at the time. “And so, we would like to throw our hat in the ring. Whether or not we will become one, we’ll see.”
Chao’s comments came on the heels of SpankChain CEO Ameen Soleimani floated the possibility of a group representing the decentralized Ethereum ecosystem joining the Libra Association on Ethereum’s behalf.
Huawei Exec Says Chinese Gov’t Should Launch Its Own Libra
In other Libra related news, the CEO of Chinese telecom titan Huawei has recently suggested the Chinese government should create its own version of Facebook’s Libra stablecoin.
In comments made to Italian publication L’Economia earlier this week, Huawei CEO Ren Zhengfei argued that China could easily preempt the Libra by introducing a similar stablecoin to global markets with much greater rapidity and sway.
“Even China is able to issue such currencies, why wait for Libra,” Zhengfei said. “The strength of a state is greater than that of an Internet company.”
Of course, the CEO doesn’t speak for the Chinese government, so there’s no official indication a Chinese Libra is coming any time soon. Still, for CEO Zhengfei to make such comments so openly suggests he thinks some Chinese authorities would be generally receptive to the idea.
As for Facebook’s own leadership, the social media company’s founder and current CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said the Libra is all about bringing an innovative financial product to mainstream users.
“We are trying to provide a safe and stable and well-regulated product, so that’s always been the strategy and we’ll continue to engage here,” Zuckerberg said.