David Marcus is the co-founder and CEO of Lightspark, a company building enterprise infrastructure for the Bitcoin Lightning Network. He previously led Meta’s (Facebook’s) cryptocurrency efforts.
Meta and Diem/Libra
Marcus joined Facebook in 2014 as head of Messenger, then took on the role of leading Facebook’s blockchain and cryptocurrency initiative in 2018. He oversaw the development of Libra (later renamed Diem), an ambitious stablecoin project backed by a consortium of major companies. Libra faced intense regulatory backlash from governments worldwide, leading to significant scope reductions. The project was ultimately shut down in January 2022 after failing to secure regulatory approval. Marcus departed Meta in late 2021.
Lightspark
In 2022, Marcus founded Lightspark to build enterprise-grade infrastructure for the Bitcoin Lightning Network, making it easier for businesses and financial institutions to send and receive Bitcoin payments. The company has raised significant venture funding and built tools including Universal Money Addresses (UMA) — a standard for interoperable payments across currencies and networks using Lightning rails.
Earlier Career
Before Meta, Marcus was the president of PayPal (2012–2014) and the founder and CEO of Zong, a mobile payments company acquired by PayPal in 2011. His extensive payments industry background informs Lightspark’s focus on making Lightning Network payments practical for enterprise use.