Facebook Libra hearings may give bitcoin ‘much-needed political momentum’

Congress is going crypto.

Lawmakers from the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives heard testimony this week regarding Facebook’s Libra project in the interest of finding a way to regulate the digital payment system and ascertain how it is different from cryptocurrencies like bitcoin.

In the hourslong confabs, Congress heard testimony from Calibra chief David Marcus, who is spearheading the Libra project, as well as experts on payment systems and cryptocurrencies.

Among the expert panelists was Meltem Demirors, chief strategy officer at CoinShares, a digital asset management firm. Speaking to CNBC’s “Fast Money” right after her testimony, she said questions still persisted around Libra’s fate.

“Today, what you saw in the House — led by Chairwoman [Maxine] Waters, who did an exceptional job — was lawmakers are trying to understand: what is Libra? Nobody really understands, ” Demirors said Wednesday. “Libra would like to be cryptocurrency. That is how Facebook is styling this….