Temasek Holdings, a Singaporean state-owned investment firm, has joined Facebook’s digital currency project and become the first government-owned fund to join the association.
Temasek is Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund and has over US$210 billion under management, including investments in Alibaba, Tencent, and Dell.
The fund tweeted that it was looking forward to the potential of the blockchain-based digital currency and how it can help create a regulated global network for cost-effective retail payments. The company has previously expressed interest in distributed ledger technology and has invested in cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
In a statement, Libra said the addition of Temasek shows their commitment to building a diverse group of organisations that will contribute to the governance, technological roadmap, and launch readiness for the Libra payment system for billions of people.
Libra also said that Temasek sees innovative technologies such as blockchain as transformation enablers of growth and that they would bring a differentiated position as an Asia-focused investor.
Libra, Facebook’s proposed digital currency, recently pulled back from its original idea of a single digital currency backed by a basket of fiat currencies. The consortium set up last year by Facebook now plans to develop several digital currencies, each representing a different fiat currency.
The welcoming of Temasek further suggests Libra has acknowledged it needs to participate in existing financial systems rather than creating its own one. Last year payment giants Visa, Mastercard, and PayPal left the project following growing regulatory pressure.
Asia Observatory 