HBAR token surges 90% amid confusion over BlackRock’s involvement

HBAR, the native token of the Hedera blockchain, surged by 90% following a widely misinterpreted announcement from the HBAR Foundation, which caused confusion among crypto influencers.

A BlackRock money market fund was tokenized on the Hedera blockchain, causing the Hedera token to surge 94% in value within the last 24 hours. However, contrary to popular belief, the largest asset manager in the world was not involved in the on-chain movement.

A widely misinterpreted April 23 HBAR Foundation X post — the group behind the Hedera network — stated that blockchain trading and infrastructure firms Archax and Ownera tokenized BlackRock’s ICS US Treasury Fund on its platform.

The video accompanying the announcement appeared to suggest that Ownera, Archax, and BlackRock were collaborating on the endeavor, and HBAR claimed to be “bringing the world’s largest asset manager on-chain.”

Several crypto influencers with substantial X followings misinterpreted a post — which garnered over 1.6 million views and 2,700 reposts in just 15 hours — leading them to mistakenly believe that BlackRock was involved in moving its $22.3 billion fund to the blockchain or had formed a partnership with Archax and Ownera.

Archax, a London-based digital asset exchange, broker, and custodian collaborated with the HBAR Foundation and Ownera, an institutional-grade digital asset platform, to bring the MMF to Hedera.

It follows abrdn plc, the largest active wealth manager in the UK and a major member of the Hedera Council, tokenizing its MMFs on Hedera in 2023. Its flagship tokenized funds marked a watershed moment in the asset management sector.

However, Chris O’Connor, founder of the Cardano Ghost Fund DAO, clarified, emphasizing that BlackRock had no involvement in the Hedera project’s developments. He went on to criticize the HBAR Foundation for framing the announcement in a misleading way, likening it to an individual buying a luxury item and claiming a partnership with the brand:

“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.”

Crypto.news reached out to Chris O’Connor regarding the matter but did not hear back at the time of writing.

At the time of writing, the Hedera token was trading at $0.1415, still up 60% in the last 24 hours. HBAR also had a trading volume of $2.76 billion in the same period.

HBAR 24-hour price chart | Source: CoinMarketCap

The latest confusion came as the Hedera Global Governing Council, which administers the Hedera network, recently approved funding 4.86 billion HBAR ($408 million at the time) for future network expansion. The funds are part of the HBAR Foundation’s plans to grow its user base in 2024, following the network’s performance in 2023, when 33 billion transactions were performed, according to the foundation.