Moscow: Payment company PayPal said it has withdrawn its participation in Facebook's cryptocurrency project Libra, becoming the first company to end its support for the project amid backlash from authorities.
"PayPal has made the decision to forgo further participation in the Libra Association at this time and to continue to focus on advancing our existing mission and business priorities as we strive to democratize access to financial services for underserved populations," PayPal said in a statement emailed to TechCrunch.
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The company added it looked forward to discussing ways of working together with Libra in the future.
Notably, earlier in October, media reported that several other companies, including Visa and MasterCard, might withdraw from the consortium of nearly 30 firms that had expressed their non-binding intention to support Libra.
Facebook announced its cryptocurrency project in June. However, it was met with criticism from both policymakers, concerned about Facebook's dominating role on the market and user privacy issues, and regulators, which said the banking regulations should be applied to the cryptocurrency.