In the US and Europe crypto community, all eyes were on Washington this week as David Marcus, Facebook’s blockchain lead project testified in front of both the US House and Senate. Interestingly, after the first day of testimony the proceedings hadn’t really seemed to make much of a dent on the Asian crypto conversation, leaving some traders wondering if the hearings explained the bitcoin price dip to nearly $9,000. Day two was a different story. Competitive pressure from China was a common theme, with Marcus admitting that the project was competing with Chinese payment giants.
“If America doesn't lead innovation...we could soon see a digital currency controlled by others whose values are dramatically different from ours.”
- David Marcus, Opening Statement to Senate
Primitive Ventures’ Dovey Wan noticed last Thursday that Libra was trending on Weibo (akin to Twitter in China), with more than 220 million views and 17,000 comments on the topic “Libra will compete with Alipay and Wechat.”
Most of the comments were skeptical: Given that Facebook is blocked in mainland China, and ApplePay had failed (according to those commenters), what made Libra think it was so special?
Whatever the feeling, one thing is clear: One of Facebook’s most deliberate arguments to the US government for why it should be allowed to build a digital currency comes down to the global supremacy of Asian platforms.
Want to dive head first into the conversation of Libra vs. Alipay and crypto and digital money in Asia more broadly?
Register for Invest: Asia, and find out what really matters to the markets.
| 
