BlackRock Denies Relationship with Hedera Hashgraph, HBAR Price Rollercoaster
The price of HBAR saw a significant surge following news of collaboration with BlackRock, only to reverse course after the corporate giant clarified its stance on the relationship.
BlackRock Denies Relationship with Hedera Hashgraph, HBAR Price Rollercoaster. Image: Finance Bull
On the evening of April 23, the HBAR Foundation announced that blockchain firms Archax and Ownera had selected BlackRock's US Treasury money market fund (ICS) to tokenize on Hedera Hashgraph. Following this news, the price of HBAR skyrocketed by 120% in just half a day.
However, soon after, a spokesperson from BlackRock came forward to "deny" any involvement, confirming that they were not associated with transactions from Archax and Ownera.
BlackRock also affirmed to Cointelegraph that they have not established any commercial relationships with Hedera, nor have they chosen this platform to tokenize any fund products, including their $22 billion US Treasury money market fund.
Subsequently, the price of HBAR sharply declined back to the $0.11 USD level it held previously. Within a 24-hour timeframe, the coin plummeted nearly 40%. The HBAR Foundation's post attracted over 2.9 million views and 3,200 reposts.
1-hour chart of HBAR/USDT pair on Binance at 11:00 AM on April 25, 2024
Graham Rodford, CEO of Archax, clarified that this was an independent decision by their company, and BlackRock themselves were aware that Archax was tokenizing shares of the fund.
Not all takes have been accurate but the fund is onchain and we build from here whilst starting to develop on chain functionality for RWA. (2/2)
— Graham (@Grodfather) April 23, 2024
Rodford added that while they could create tokens without seeking the fund's investment management permission, they chose to do so to build a long-term relationship.
