David Marcus.
REUTERS/Stephen Lam
David Marcus, who was in charge of the social media giant's cryptocurrencies efforts, is leaving by the end of the year to focus on other projects.
He co-created Diem, the company's digital currency, and led the creation of the company's digital wallet. Stephane Kasriel is the VP of product at Novi.
Marcus made the difficult decision to step down after seven years at Meta. My entrepreneurial DNA has been nudging me for too many mornings in a row to ignore it.
Both Diem and Novi faced criticism and never saw proper rollouts.
Regulatory concerns over Facebook's data privacy and potential money laundering issues contributed to delays in the program, which is now run by an independent association.
Novi is tied to Diem's payment system and functions as a separate app. Novi was launched in October to let users transfer money instantly and without fees. Just a few hours after it was released, Democratic senators said that Facebook cannot be trusted to manage a payment system or digital currency.
According to an August post, Marcus said that Novi could play an important role in fixing the global payments system that he said is too slow and costly.
He joined Meta Platforms from PayPal. The social media firm's Messenger service was led by the 48-year-old before he led its crypto efforts.
"I've learned so much working with you and I'm so grateful for everything you've done for this place," said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg. "We wouldn't have taken such a big swing at Diem without your leadership and I'm grateful you've made Meta a place where we make those big bets."
Marcus is stepping down after other executives left the company. Kevin left in March. In September 2020, Morgan Beller left Diem.
Business Insider has an original article.
