For me, it is not very surprising. I was somewhat expecting this. I had a feeling that during the past few weeks Zuckerberg was searching for an exit strategy. He is using the senate hearing as an excuse. Perhaps this was one of the reasons why some of their partners exited the scene earlier (PayPal was the first, followed by others including Visa, Mastercard and Stripe).

Mark Zuckerberg initially wanted to use the concept of cryptocurrency to his own benefit by trying to launch his own coin. But he didn't had enough understanding of the way cryptocurrency works, and this led to all the negative consequences. And he did what he had to do, once he realized that he is trying to chew much more than what he could swallow.