Meta’s former Head of Crypto and Digital Finance Operations
David Marcus left his position as Meta’s Head of Crypto and Digital Finance Operations in November last year and many wondered what the next step would be for him.
David Marcus has launched a Bitcoin payments startup called Lightspark and the startup will be building on Bitcoin’s lightning network. For now, there are limited details on what the startup and its operations are all about but a press release by the company confirms that it is aiming “to explore, build and extend the capabilities and utility of Bitcoin.”
Essentially, Bitcoin’s lightning networks ensure cheaper and faster transactions compared to the base-level network. It is, therefore, more ideal to use for payments and decentralized apps.
David Marcus, apart from being Meta’s Head of Crypto and Digital Finance Operations, has held other key positions in other global companies. He is the former President of payments company PayPal, was Vice President of Messaging Products at Facebook, and is a co-creator of Meta’s cryptocurrency project Diem. He will serve as Chief Executive Officer, as expected, and a couple of former members from Meta’s crypto team will be occupying key executive roles.
The company has had its first funding round and received investments from Thrive Capital, Coatue, Felix Capital, Ribbit Capital, Matrix Partners, and Zeev Ventures. A16z Crypto and Paradigm co-led the funding round. The amount raised was not disclosed by the startup.
Experts are of the opinion that the startup could have made its announcement at a rather better time as the crypto market is currently in turmoil having lost over 200 billion recently. The losses look like they will be sustained for some time but a small group thinks this is an opportunity and that people should buy the dip.
For David’s Marcus startup, it may not be able to capture investors’ attention as it should if the announcement came at a better time.
