Hedera’s native token, HBAR, experienced a remarkable 96% surge over the past 24 hours following the tokenization of BlackRock’s ICS US Treasury Money Market Fund on the Hedera blockchain.
According to CoinGecko, the price of HBAR surged from $0.087 to a peak of $0.175 following the announcement. As of the latest update, HBAR was trading at $0.1305, representing a significant 47.11% increase in the past 24 hours.
However, despite widespread speculation suggesting BlackRock was actively involved in the process, the asset manager was merely “aware” of the move, according to reports.
This separation arose from a misinterpretation of the HBAR Foundation‘s social media post on April 23, 2024, which announced the development.
The foundation, which is the organization behind the Hedera network, announced in the post that blockchain trading and infrastructure firms Archax and Ownera had tokenized BlackRock’s fund on the Hedera network. The accompanying video led some to believe that BlackRock was directly involved in the venture, leading to excitement in the crypto community.
Chris O’Connor, founder of the Cardano Ghost Fund DAO, clarified that BlackRock had “no involvement” with Hedera’s development and criticized the HBAR Foundation for the way they framed the announcement.
“What did happen was a HBAR project through the secondary market tokenized shares of a BlackRock fund. Much like I can buy a Rolex take a pic and post it on my X account. Doesn’t mean Rolex ‘partnered’ with me,” O’Connor wrote in a social media post hours after the Foundation post.
Archax co-founder and CEO Graham Rodford confirmed O’Connor’s statement, noting that it was Archax’s decision to tokenize BlackRock’s fund on Hedera and that “everyone involved was aware” of the move.
Despite the price surge, HBAR is still down over 69% from its all-time high in September 2021, according to CoinGecko.
The announcement also coincided with the Hedera Global Governing Council’s approval to allocate 4.86 billion HBAR ($408 million) for further network development, part of the HBAR Foundation’s efforts to strengthen its user base in 2024.
The HBAR Foundation reported that the Hedera network processed 33 billion transactions in 2023, showcasing the network’s growing popularity and adoption.
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