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Hedera’s announcement on Tuesday about tokenizing BlackRock’s U.S. Treasury money market fund on its blockchain sparked a significant surge in trading activity for the platform’s native cryptocurrency, HBAR. However, it’s important to clarify that BlackRock was not directly involved in this tokenization project on Hedera. The news has opened the floodgates to TradFi giants realizing how big of a game-changer Hedera is.
Today we witness #RWA history as @BlackRock’s ICS US Treasury money market fund (MMF) is tokenized on @Hedera with @ArchaxEx and @OwneraIO, marking a major milestone in asset management by bringing the world’s largest asset manager on-chain 🏦 pic.twitter.com/1Kye8cjAJx
— HBAR Foundation (@HBAR_foundation) April 23, 2024
HBAR’s Price Pumped with Fake News
The surge in HBAR’s price and trading volumes following the announcement was fueled by investor speculation linking BlackRock to the tokenization initiative. HBAR saw a remarkable 107% surge in value, reaching $0.18 before experiencing a 25% dip. Trading volumes skyrocketed by an astonishing 6082% to $2.5 billion, propelling the price above $0.15 for the first time in two years.
While the Relative Strength Index (RSI) indicates sudden gains, with targets possibly reaching $0.20 or $0.30, caution is advised as profit-taking could trigger corrections, particularly around the $0.1096 mark. A breach of the 21-day moving average at $0.1038 might signal a decline toward the $0.0815 support level.
Archax’s Clarification, No Blackrock Connect
Recently, the HBAR Foundation, Archax, and Ownera posted on X that they enabled BlackRock’s MMF tokenization on Hedera. Initially, it seemed like Blackrock chose Hedera for a project, causing excitement and potential gains for the token. However, it was clarified later by Archax CEO Graham Rodfort that the decision came from them, not Blackrock. However, it’s essential to note that BlackRock’s entry into the realm of real-world asset tokenization occurred last month with the launch of its USD Institutional Digital Liquidity Fund on Ethereum.
Chris O’Connor of Cardano Ghost Fund DAO criticized the announcement’s framing, noting the unwarranted excitement it caused among crypto influencers. Despite the confusion and temporary price surge, HBAR’s value is still down by 69% from its ATH in September 2021. Hedera plans to expand its user base after executing 33 billion transactions in 2023.
HBAR’s Market Snapshot
Despite the surge in HBAR’s price and trading volumes, the market depth remains relatively slow, with a 2% market depth showing $900,000 in cumulative bids on Binance and Upbit order books within 2% of the current price. Moreover, funding rates across derivative exchanges are heavily negative, indicating a bearish bias and the potential for volatility.
With open interest rising by 442% to $160 million in the past 24 hours, coupled with a lack of liquidity, the landscape is primed for a volatile trading period. This volatility could lead to either a return to parity or a short squeeze, adding to the uncertainty surrounding HBAR’s price movements in the near term.