Good News, Facebook Doubters: You Can Bet on Libra Being Delayed

Facebook Inc.’s proposed cryptocurrency has faced such overwhelming scorn since it was announced in June that an exchange is facilitating bets on whether the social-media company can come close to meeting its target launch date

Head of Facebook’s Calibra David Marcus waits for the beginning of a hearing before Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee on July 16, 2019. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images

By Alastair Marsh

Facebook Inc.’s proposed cryptocurrency has faced such overwhelming scorn since it was announced in June that an exchange is facilitating bets on whether the social-media company can come close to meeting its target launch date.

CoinFLEX, a crypto-futures exchange that launched earlier this year, is offering derivatives that pay out based on the likelihood Libra will be operational by the end of 2020. Facebook has said it plans to begin by the middle of next year but will not do so until regulators are satisfied, a substantial qualifier given the misgivings of policy makers from France’s finance minister to the chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve.

From the moment Facebook officially unveiled Libra, the digital currency has faced an onslaught of criticism, with regulators and central bankers raising concerns over the potential threats to everything from data privacy to…