Circle Brings on Former Libra Vice Chair Dante Disparte in Potential Blow to Facebook Stablecoin Effort

Dante Disparte, the former vice chair of the Facebook-initiated Diem Association, has joined payments startup Circle as its new chief strategy officer and head of global policy.

It’s unclear when Disparte, who was a part of the diem stablecoin project since its origin in June 2019 (when it was referred to as libra) left the initiative, but his LinkedIn profile said he joined Circle in April 2021. Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire announced the hire on Monday in a blog post.

“The standards that we’ve helped bring into the world are taking on a new life, as dollar stablecoins become one of the most critical new infrastructures of the internet and commerce. This technical innovation converges with heightened regulatory and policy maker focus,” Allaire wrote.

Disparte is only the latest high-profile Diem executive to leave the project, which has faced strong regulatory headwinds since it was first announced. Morgan Beller, one of the Facebook employees who spearheaded Libra, joined venture capital firm NFX in September. Disparte was hired in June 2019 as one of the very first Libra Association staffers.

Meanwhile, David Marcus, the Facebook executive running its Novi wallet subsidiary, was placed in charge of the social media giant’s new “Facebook Financial” wing, which has been tasked with integrating payments into its different messaging applications.

Christine Smedley, who ran communications around Novi for Facebook, joined Robinhood last year as its chief marketing officer.

Allaire said in Monday’s blog post that Disparte would be part of Circle’s global expansion effort.

In an opinion piece submitted to the Diplomatic Courier, Disparte wrote:

"Designing first principles into digital financial services and importing sound monetary policy and market conduct from independent central banks into stablecoins and trusted digital currencies, like USDC (now used by some of the most exacting and trusted financial institutions in the world), are adding crucial optionality, competition and reach to today’s financial services."