Amid a sea of scorn, one U.S. Senator is praising Libra.
Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.) wrote a letter to Libra Association member Anchorage, a South Dakota-based trust company, endorsing the Facebook-led project and citing it as an example of a technological advance he feels is needed to aid U.S. consumers.
Rounds also pushed back against a more “ominous” letter penned by Senators Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), warning the CEOs of Mastercard, Visa and Stripe that they may come under increased regulatory scrutiny should they continue participating in Libra. (All three, alongside PayPal, eBay, Mercado Pago and Booking Holdings, later quit the project.)
“Technologies like Libra … have the potential to help unbanked and underbanked consumers right here at home,” Rounds wrote Wednesday, adding: