If the product was already released and loved my millions of voters, the government would be far more limited in their ability to shut it down.
They should have done a simultaneous 'announce and launch'.
> In May, the leaders of the Senate Banking Committee wrote to Facebook seeking information on rumors of its cryptocurrency project, and how it would protect consumer information.
Perhaps Facebook rushed an announcement because of the government inquiry.
There's a limit to how much you can "no comment" your way through a congressional hearing; it would be obvious that this meant that Facebook were working on such a thing, and would increase the likelihood of it getting pre-emptively banned.