Hedera’s HBAR token pumps 96% on misinterpreted BlackRock announcement
A BlackRock money market fund has been tokenized on the Hedera blockchain sending the Hedera (HBAR) token on a 96% rally in the last 24 hours — but the world’s largest asset manager was only “aware” of the move on-chain despite many believing it was actively involved.
The widely misinterpreted April 23 HBAR Foundation X post — an organization working with the Hedera community — shared that blockchain trading and infrastructure firms Archax and Ownera tokenized BlackRock’s ICS US Treasury Fund on its network.
The video shared with the announcement seemed to suggest Ownera, Archax, and BlackRock were partnered on the venture and HBAR claimed it was “bringing the world’s largest asset manager on-chain.”
Some crypto influencers with large X followings shared a misinterpretation of the post — which had amassed over 1.6 million views and 2,700 reposts over the last 15 hours — believing it to mean BlackRock was responsible for the $22.3 billion fund’s move onto the blockchain or had partnered with Archax and Ownera.
Cardano Ghost Fund DAO founder Chris O’Connor initially believed that BlackRock had “no involvement” with Hedera’s development and slammed the HBAR Foundation for the way it 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.”
But Archax co-founder and CEO Graham Rodford replied to O’Connor, saying “it was indeed an Archax choice to put [BlackRocks fund] on Hedera” and added that “everyone involved was aware.”
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HBAR’s 96% rally in the past day has pushed its price to $0.175 — a two-year high, according to CoinGecko.
Despite the price pump, HBAR is still down over 69% from its September 2021 all-time high of $0.57.
The announcement came as the Hedera Global Governing Council — which oversees the Hedera network — recently approved allocating 4.86 billion HBAR ($408 million at the time) for further network development.
The funds are part of the HBAR Foundation’s plans to strengthen its user base in 2024, following 2023’s performance, which saw 33 billion transactions processed on the network, the foundation claims.
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Update (April 24 7:30 am UTC): This article has been updated to add an X post from Graham Rodford.
