Share this article
Facebook's Marcus Says China Wins With Digital Renminbi if US Nixes Libra
David Marcus, who leads the Libra project, said China will create a digital currency system that could be entirely out of reach for U.S. authorities.
By David Pan
Updated Sep 13, 2021, 11:36 a.m. Published Oct 22, 2019, 2:00 p.m.
David Marcus, Facebook’s top executive on the Libra project, said China will create a digital currency system that could be entirely out of reach for U.S. authorities.
Marcus warned that Washington risks “having a whole part of the world completely blocked from U.S. sanctions and protected from U.S. sanctions and having a new digital reserve currency,” according to an interview with Bloomberg News.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
Don't miss another story.Subscribe to the Crypto Daybook Americas Newsletter today. See all newsletters
"The future in five years, if we don’t have a good answer, is basically China re-wiring" a large part of the world "with a digital renminbi running on their controlled blockchain," Marcus said.
China has been stepping up its efforts to push forward with its Digital Currency Electronic Payment (DCEP) since Facebook’s unveiling of Libra in June.
Chinese central bank officials have emphasized that one of the goals for China’s cryptocurrency is to preempt the rise of Libra that would reinforce the dollar dominance in the international financial system.
While Libra would be pegged to a basket of fiat currencies, excluding China’s renminbi, one of the five reserved fiat currencies accepted by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for international transactions.
China’s DCEP had been in the works, but the project's development accelerated after Libra was announced.
The People’s Bank of China appointed Mu Changchun to lead the Research Institute on Digital Currency in September and detailed a proposal to launch and distribute the national coin among major Chinese commercial banks.
Facebook’s crypto initiative has met with resistance from the U.S. Senate and the Federal Reserve, since it was announced in June. Five major partners, including PayPal, MasterCard and Visa, withdrew their support this month due to the business and regulatory challenges.
David Marcus image via CoinDesk Archives
More For You
What to know:
- As of October 2025, GoPlus has generated $4.7M in total revenue across its product lines. The GoPlus App is the primary revenue driver, contributing $2.5M (approx. 53%), followed by the SafeToken Protocol at $1.7M.
- GoPlus Intelligence's Token Security API averaged 717 million monthly calls year-to-date in 2025 , with a peak of nearly 1 billion calls in February 2025. Total blockchain-level requests, including transaction simulations, averaged an additional 350 million per month.
- Since its January 2025 launch , the $GPS token has registered over $5B in total spot volume and $10B in derivatives volume in 2025. Monthly spot volume peaked in March 2025 at over $1.1B , while derivatives volume peaked the same month at over $4B.
More For You
Bank of Japan Set to Hike Rates to 30-Year High, Posing Another Threat to Bitcoin
Rising Japanese rates and a stronger yen threaten carry trades and could pressure crypto markets despite easing U.S. policy.
What to know:
- According to the Nikkei, the Bank of Japan (BoJ) is set to increase interest rates to 75bps, the highest level in 30 years.
- Rising Japanese funding costs, alongside falling U.S rates, could force leveraged funds to reduce carry trade exposure, increasing downside risk for bitcoin.
Top Stories
