Facebook parent company Meta is losing its top crypto executive later this year.
David Marcus who leads crypto unit Novi and previously helmed the company’s Messenger unit, announced Tuesday that he will be leaving the company later this year. Marcus joined Facebook in 2014. His departure marks another major exit from a long-time Facebook executive — in September, Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer announced he was stepping down from his role after 13 years at the company.
Former Upwork CEO Stephane Kasriel who previously worked as the head of Product for Novi will be taking over Marcus’ role at the top of the org.
Marcus has long been an important figure in the crypto community since his days as president of PayPal where he was among the first crop of tech leaders to embrace Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. Marcus has previously served on the board of Coinbase.
His tenure leading crypto at Facebook has mostly been marred by setbacks as the company’s Diem cryptocurrency project has encountered widespread industry and regulatory pushback that have led the company to scale back the pace at which it rolled out new efforts in the crypto space. Earlier this year, the company launched a small pilot of its cryptocurrency wallet Novi allowing users in the United States and Guatemala to exchange “stablecoin” cryptocurrencies using the app.
Marcus hints that he may soon be starting his own venture.
“While there’s still so much to do right on the heels of launching Novi — and I remain as passionate as ever about the need for change in our payments and financial systems — my entrepreneurial DNA has been nudging me for too many mornings in a row to continue ignoring it,” Marcus wrote in a tweet thread.
Personal news: after a fulfilling seven years at Meta, I’ve made the difficult decision to step down and leave the company at the end of this year. (1/7)
— David Marcus (@davidmarcus) November 30, 2021
Facebook’s CTO to step down after 13 years at the company