HBAR Prices Crashes 35% As BlackRock Denies Any Ties To Hedera

HBAR, Hedera’s native token, saw a sharp correction following clarification that the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, was not directly involved in the tokenization of its ICS Treasury Fund on the Hedera network

HBAR Token Crashes By Almost 35%

Data from CoinGecko shows that the HBAR token has declined by almost 35% since its price rose by over 100% on the back of the announcement, which many misinterpreted to mean that BlackRock tokenized its fund on the Hedera network. On April 24, the Hedera Foundation shared that Blockchain trading firm Archax and Infrastructure firm Ownera had collaborated to tokenize BlackRock’s ICS US Treasury money market fund (MMF) on Hedera.

Members of the crypto community, including influencers like CrediBULL Crypto and Mason Versluis, misconstrued this as meaning that BlackRock had tokenized its fund on Hedera. This assumption immediately created a bullish narrative for the ecosystem, leading to HBAR’s price rallying by over 100% and peaking at $0.176.  

However, the crypto token has since been on a downtrend, with BlackRock denying any involvement with Hedera. Specifically, a BlackRock spokesperson told Cointelegraph that the world’s largest asset manager “has no commercial relationship with Hedera nor has BlackRock selected Hedera to tokenize any BlackRock funds.”

Meanwhile, Archax’s co-founder had also clarified on his X (formerly Twitter) platform that BlackRock wasn’t directly involved in the whole move. He claimed that tokenization of the fund can usually be done without the permission of the asset manager. However, he revealed that BlackRock knew they were tokenizing on the network.

Why The News Is Still Bullish For The Hedera Ecosystem

Despite BlackRock not being directly involved in this development, crypto analyst CrediBULL Crypto offered some perspective on why this news is still bullish for Hedera and its HBAR token. He revealed that BlackRock is the fourth largest shareholder of ABRDN, a firm that is a primary investor in Archax.

Therefore, the crypto analyst believes that BlackRock must have signed off on this move, something he considers a “de-facto endorsement of the product.” Meanwhile, he also alluded to an interview that revealed that BlackRock chose Hedera, although ABRDN introduced them to the network. 

CrediBULL Crypto noted that even if BlackRock wasn’t building on the network, it is clear that “major enterprises are using Hedera.” They are “actively involved with building on the network and are constantly pushing to move it forward behind the scenes,” he added. He suggested that this puts Hedera above 99% of networks that can’t boast of such achievements. 

HBAR price chart from Tradingview.com (Hedera)

BlackRock’s Tokenized Fund News Sends Hedera (HBAR) Soaring 100%, The Reason May Surprise You

In a surprising turn of events, the native token of the decentralized ledger platform Hedera, HBAR, experienced a significant price surge of over 100% during the early hours of Tuesday. Starting from a low of $0.0875, HBAR skyrocketed to reach the $0.1821 mark by Wednesday. 

The sudden surge was triggered by the news of BlackRock’s tokenized fund, BUIDL, which generated high expectations among HBAR investors regarding a potential collaboration between the prominent asset manager and the Hedera protocol.

Not Directly Connected To Hedera?

Launched by BlackRock in March 2024, BUIDL operates as a tokenized fund on the Ethereum blockchain, providing US dollar yields through tokenization. 

Initially, an announcement led to confusion among investors, who mistakenly believed that BlackRock would directly tokenize the fund on the Hedera network. This misunderstanding triggered a significant surge in the HBAR price.

Upon closer examination of the announcement, it became clear that BlackRock and Hedera had no direct connection, although the initial reaction to the news was noteworthy. 

Crypto analysts, who use the pseudonym “CrediBull” on social media site X (formerly Twitter), shed light on the situation, emphasizing that explicit permission from BlackRock was unnecessary to list tokenized versions of their funds. 

It was not a deliberate decision by BlackRock to tokenize on Hedera; rather, an existing platform on the network took the liberty of tokenizing one of BlackRock’s funds. However, for the analyst, the fact that a platform on Hedera was among the first to tokenize a BlackRock fund reflects the platform’s leadership in the space.

Analyst Clarifies Misconception

Further examination reveals that Archax, the company behind the tokenized BlackRock fund on Hedera, is a portfolio company of ABRDN Investments, the largest asset manager in the UK, with approximately $500 billion in assets under management (AUM). 

Additionally, CrediBull emphasizes that BlackRock happens to be the fourth-largest shareholder of ABRDN. Notably, around ten months ago, Archax tokenized one of ABRDN’s money market funds, preceding their launch of the BlackRock fund.

An interview by the Head of Digital Assets at ABRDN clarifies their involvement in the tokenization process on Archax. A “distribution agreement” was signed permitting the tokenization to proceed. If a similar agreement were reached with BlackRock, it would imply the asset manager’s endorsement of the product.

Ultimately, the interview with the head of digital assets at ABRDN underscores the fact that significant players are utilizing and contributing to the growth of Hedera behind the scenes.

Hedera

Following the clarification of the situation, the price of HBAR has retraced to $0.1199. Nevertheless, it remains up 8% over the past 24 hours and has recorded an impressive gain of nearly 60% in the past seven days. 

CoinGecko data highlights a substantial surge in HBAR’s trading volume, which has increased by over 1,100% in the past few days. This surge in trading volume indicates the widespread confusion sparked by the initial news announcement.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com

Hedera (HBAR) Soars 50% To Mark New 20-Month High, Fuels Bullish Price Targets

Hedera (HBAR), a decentralized public network known for its near real-time consensus and developer-friendly environment, has emerged as one of the top-performing altcoins in the cryptocurrency market. 

As the overall market experiences a resurgence of bullish sentiment, HBAR has demonstrated impressive growth, positioning itself as one of the leaders among the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization.

Trading Volume For HBAR Spikes 200%

Over the past fourteen days, HBAR has recorded substantial gains, surging by nearly 50%. This upward momentum extends to the thirty-day and year-to-date time frames, with gains of 36.8% and 15%, respectively. 

In the past seven and twenty-four hours alone, HBAR’s price has continued its bullish trajectory, skyrocketing by 33.5% and 17%, respectively. These price movements have propelled HBAR beyond its previous 19-month high of $0.1015, reaching a new 20-month high of $0.1060. 

The surge in trading volume, which currently stands at $218,438,657 in the last 24 hours, reflects the increased market activity surrounding HBAR, representing a 204.90% increase from one day ago, according to CoinGecko data. 

Hedera

Despite HBAR’s impressive performance, the road to its all-time high (ATH) of $0.5759, achieved in September 2021, presents a formidable challenge. Currently facing an almost two-year downtrend structure, HBAR would require a staggering 443% uptrend to reclaim its previous milestone.

In the near term, HBAR faces a crucial hurdle at the $0.110 level, which must be defended to prevent further gains. A breach of this level would open the door for testing the $0.1148 and $0.1285 resistance walls. 

Should bullish momentum persist, attention will then shift to the resistance at $0.1506, followed by $0.1690 and $0.1822. These levels represent the final obstacles before potentially reaching the $0.2000 mark, a threshold not surpassed since April 2022. 

On the downside, the $0.0855 level is expected to act as a support, preventing HBAR from establishing a lower low within the current market uptrend structure.

Hedera Network Welcomes Mondelēz International

As the adoption of cryptocurrencies gains momentum among major companies worldwide, the Hedera Council, responsible for overseeing the Hedera public network, has recently announced a series of significant partnerships. 

One notable addition to the Council is Mondelēz International (Nasdaq: MDLZ), a prominent multinational food company renowned for its global brands, including Oreo, Ritz, LU, Clif Bar, Cadbury Dairy Milk, Milka, and Toblerone.

On February 14, the Hedera Council revealed that Mondelēz International had joined its ranks. This collaboration marks a significant milestone as Mondelēz International, with its mission to empower people to “snack right”, sets its sights on leveraging distributed ledger technology (DLT)-based solutions on the Hedera network. 

Per the announcement, the initial focus of the partnership will revolve around digital transformation initiatives, supply chain management, and enhancing core business processes to deliver elevated customer experiences.

With an emphasis on digital transformation, Mondelēz International seeks to streamline processes, enhance transparency, and optimize supply chain management using the Hedera infrastructure.

All around, the Hedera protocol and its native token HBAR have experienced substantial growth in market capitalization, trading volume, and partnerships, reflecting the increasing interest from investors in the protocol’s offerings. This positive environment sets the stage for future growth and development of the protocol.

However, it remains to be seen whether HBAR can sustain investor attention and continue to achieve price gains, considering the possibility of market corrections following the significant gains recorded in the past 30 days. Nonetheless, HBAR appears well-positioned to emerge as one of the top-performing altcoins in the current bull run.

Featured image from Shutterstock, chart from TradingView.com