Hedera’s HBAR plummets 32% as BlackRock denies any business alliance

BlackRock has clarified that it does not have any commercial relationship with Hedera and did not choose the Hedera Hashgraph to tokenize any of its funds, including its $22 billion money market fund. The HBAR token experienced a significant rally of over 100% following the announcement by the HBAR Foundation that blockchain firms Archax and Ownera had tokenized BlackRock’s ICS U.S. Treasury Fund on Hedera. However, it was misinterpreted by some that BlackRock was actively involved in the tokenization process. A BlackRock spokesperson confirmed to Cointelegraph that this was not the case. As of the time of writing, HBAR has experienced a 32.8% decline in the past 24 hours, falling to $0.118 from its peak of $0.176 on April 24. The HBAR Foundation’s announcement has gained significant attention, accumulating over 2.9 million views and 3,200 reposts in just over 36 hours. Mason Versluis, an influencer in the cryptocurrency space, incorrectly stated to his followers that BlackRock had tokenized one of its money market funds on Hedera. Archax CEO Graham Rodford later clarified that it was his firm’s decision to tokenize shares of BlackRock’s money market fund on Hedera, but acknowledged that BlackRock was aware of Archax’s actions. Rodford further explained this during an interview with crypto YouTuber Jesus Martinez. Despite the temporary price increase, HBAR is still down over 78% from its all-time high of $0.57 in September 2021.