David Marcus, Meta’s Head of Crypto, stepping down by the end of 2021
David Marcus, Meta’s Head of Cryptocurrency and Fintech unit Novi, has announced he would step down from his role by December 2021.
As per reports, Marcus would be replaced by Stephane Kasriel, the former CEO of Upwork. Kasriel has been associated with Meta, formerly Facebook, since August 2020.
Marcus made the announcement of his big decision via a tweet on December 1, where he noted having made a “difficult decision” to leave the giant social network firm by the end of this year. Although he hasn’t gone into detail about his next stint, he hinted at being a part of something “new and exciting” that is built by himself.
Marcus tweeted that while there is much to do for launching Novi and that he remains “passionate as ever” about the need for changing payments and financial systems, it is his “entrepreneurial DNA” that has “nudged” him for a long time “in a row to continue ignoring it.”
Marcus has been working with Facebook since 2014, when he had initially taken up the role in the firm’s messenger service department before he shifted focus to financial services in 2018 by founding Novi, Meta’s digital wallet.
At the same time, Marcus had co-founded the beleaguered Diem stablecoin project, which has been operating independently of now.
By his new decision, Marcus has joined the list of former executives of the social media giant’s Crypto unit who have left the Meta over the past 12 months, including his fellow Diem co-founders Morgan Beller and Kevin Weil, who have both taken up new roles at NFX and Planet respectively.
Novi and Diem have been facing intense scrutiny from local and international regulators owing to their connections with Facebook, as neither project have yet been fully launched within the same time frame.
In October, a group of US senators, including Elizabeth Warren, a crypto sceptic, had sent a letter to Facebook calling on the firm from discontinuing its wallet project only hours after Novi had launched a pilot in the United States and Guatemala in collaboration with Coinbase.
Since the future of Novi has now officially passed onto different hands, Marcus reflected on his time at the firm, highlighting that his proudest achievement was assembling a “kickass team” in the past three years.
