<p>Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency is readying to launch as early as January, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing three unidentified people involved in the project.</p>.<p>The Geneva-based Libra Association that will issue and govern Libra plans to launch a single digital coin backed by the dollar, the FT said, citing one of the people.</p>.<p>The move would represent an even bigger scaling-back of the project's ambitions than that proposed in April in response to a regulatory and political backlash against the project.</p>.<p>Libra, unveiled by Facebook Inc last year, was relaunched in slimmed-down form after regulators and central banks across the world raised concerns it could upset financial stability and erode mainstream power over money.</p>.<p>The Libra Association, of which Facebook is one of 27 members, is seeking the go-ahead from Switzerland's markets watchdog to issue a series of stablecoins backed by individual traditional currencies, as well as a token based on the currency-pegged stablecoins.</p>.<p>Yet under the body's new plan, other coins backed by traditional currencies, as well as the composite, would be introduced at a later date, the FT said.</p>.<p>The Libra Association did not immediately reply to a request for comment. FINMA, the Swiss regulator, did not elaborate beyond a statement https://www.finma.ch/en/news/2020/04/20200416-mm-libra in April confirming receipt of Libra's application for a payments licence.</p>.<p>Stablecoins are designed to avoid the volatility typical of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, making them in theory more suitable for payments and money transfers.</p>
<p>Facebook's Libra cryptocurrency is readying to launch as early as January, the Financial Times reported on Friday, citing three unidentified people involved in the project.</p>.<p>The Geneva-based Libra Association that will issue and govern Libra plans to launch a single digital coin backed by the dollar, the FT said, citing one of the people.</p>.<p>The move would represent an even bigger scaling-back of the project's ambitions than that proposed in April in response to a regulatory and political backlash against the project.</p>.<p>Libra, unveiled by Facebook Inc last year, was relaunched in slimmed-down form after regulators and central banks across the world raised concerns it could upset financial stability and erode mainstream power over money.</p>.<p>The Libra Association, of which Facebook is one of 27 members, is seeking the go-ahead from Switzerland's markets watchdog to issue a series of stablecoins backed by individual traditional currencies, as well as a token based on the currency-pegged stablecoins.</p>.<p>Yet under the body's new plan, other coins backed by traditional currencies, as well as the composite, would be introduced at a later date, the FT said.</p>.<p>The Libra Association did not immediately reply to a request for comment. FINMA, the Swiss regulator, did not elaborate beyond a statement https://www.finma.ch/en/news/2020/04/20200416-mm-libra in April confirming receipt of Libra's application for a payments licence.</p>.<p>Stablecoins are designed to avoid the volatility typical of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, making them in theory more suitable for payments and money transfers.</p>