We’ve previously written about Facebook dipping its toes into the cryptocurrency and blockchain space – the company has appointed David Marcus, who previously headed Facebook’s Messenger project, to lead a working group focused on exploring how Facebook could leverage blockchain technology in its own services. There have also been rumours about Facebook considering developing their own cryptocurrency.

Up until now, David Marcus also served as a board member for the popular U.S. cryptocurrency broker and exchange operator Coinbase. In order to avoid any conflicts of interest, Marcus has now resigned from this position, which could be an indicator that Facebook is taking their blockchain and cryptocurrency exploration more seriously. Occasionally, rumours about Facebook planning to acquire Coinbase have been popping up, but they appear to be mostly unfounded at the moment.

A Business Insider report recently said that Facebook was in talks with Stellar to create a blockchain based on their technology. Facebook quickly responded with a statement to Cheddar:

“We are not engaged in any discussions with Stellar, and we are not considering building on their technology.”

The Business Insider report said that Facebook talked with Stellar in the past, while Facebook’s statement said they are not engaged in any discussions in the present while not explicitly denying that the two entities were having discussions at some previous point in time. In any case, it appears their disccusions have not amounted to anything even if we assume they did in fact occur.

XLM saw a bit of a price spike when the reports originally started circulating, increasing from about $0.22 to $0.24 in the space of about three hours. Facebook’s response to the reports and the overall market sentiment, which is highly negative at the moment, quickly erased XLM’s brief rally.