Investment management firm, BlackRock, has clarified that it has no commercial affiliation with Hedera, a distributed ledger technology platform. The clarification has led to a 32% drop in the value of Hedera’s token, HBAR. Previously, there was a misconception that BlackRock had chosen Hedera’s platform to tokenize its funds. This misunderstanding arose from an announcement made by the HBAR Foundation, stating that blockchain companies Archax and Ownera had tokenized BlackRock’s ICS U.S. Treasury Fund on Hedera.
However, BlackRock has indicated clearly that they have not selected Hedera for any tokenization of their funds. This refutation comes after HBAR experienced a surge in value, following the misinterpretation of the HBAR Foundation’s announcement.
Archax CEO, Graham Rodford, also confirmed that it was Archax’s decision to tokenize BlackRock’s fund shares on Hedera. He mentioned that although BlackRock was aware of this, they were not directly involved. Rodford illustrated the misunderstanding as sidetracking from the real intent of the tokenization effort, led by Archax.
BlackRock, however, has declared that their digital asset strategy will be communicated directly to the public in due course. Despite this setback for HBAR, it is worth noting that the value still trails significantly behind its all-time high reached in September 2021. With current developments, it remains to be seen how this will affect HBAR’s value in the long run.