Will Egypt launch its own official digital currency?
As Facebook announced it might not launch its digital currency as previously announced, experts in Egypt are debating whether the country should regulate digital currency.
CAIRO — As Facebook said July 31 that major difficulties are impeding the launch of its digital currency known as Libra, several countries, including Egypt, felt the urge to find a way to deal with cryptocurrencies.
In its statement, Facebook said that although it still intends to launch its cryptocurrency system by 2020, a number of factors could scupper that timeline or even impede the currency’s launch entirely. Facebook said the digital currency would make the social media giant subject to governmental scrutiny in many countries, and this could negatively affect Facebook’s business, reputation and financial results.
In May 2018, Facebook announced that it was seeking to launch its own cryptocurrency in dozens of countries, but the July 31 statement said that the initiative faces a great deal of criticism from regulators and lawmakers around the world.
These concerns were echoed by the Group of Seven. French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire told the French Senate in July, “My determination to make sure that Facebook’s Libra project does not become a sovereign currency that could compete with the currency of states is absolute,” and added, “because I will never accept that corporations could become private states.”
