BlackRock is not directly involved in Archax and Ownera’s decision to tokenize shares of the ICS US Treasury money market fund (MMF) on Hedera. A company representative clarified this, as reported by Cointelegraph.
On April 23, the HBAR Foundation, the blockchain developer for Hedera, released a statement accompanied by images and videos featuring company logos.
The market interpreted the announcement as a partnership with BlackRock, causing the HBAR token to surge by 110%.
The day before, the HBAR Foundation faced criticism for misleading language. The following day, BlackRock issued an official response.
“BlackRock has no commercial relationship with Hedera, and BlackRock did not select Hedera for the tokenization of any funds,” stated a representative.
The denial led to a negative reaction in HBAR, with the price dropping from a peak of $0.182 after the news to the current $0.113.
Archax CEO Graham Rodford noted that BlackRock was “aware” of the firm’s tokenization of the structure’s shares.
(17/18) If we decide to tokenise, arguably we do not need to approach the investment manager, but we always do as we want long term relationships. The investment manager’s level of involvement can vary but both abrdn and Blackrock were aware that we were tokenising on Hedera.
— Graham (@Grodfather) April 24, 2024
In an interview with influencer Jesus Martinez, he clarified this point.
$HBAR Recently Went Up 100% In A SINGLE Day Before Correcting
After news that @BlackRock‘s ICS Money Market Fund would be tokenized on @hedera
I had @Grodfather on, CEO/Co-Founder at @ArchaxEx (The people that tokenized BlackRock’s MMF on Hedera to explain this all!) pic.twitter.com/wVp0J7n6jj
— Jesus Martinez (@0xJesusMartinez) April 24, 2024
“What appeared on Twitter was close to the truth […]. Archax has clients who wanted to invest in MMF. When they showed interest, we opened an account at BlackRock to meet demand. We told [BlackRock] we were going to do it. Then we warned them about the press release: ‘Hey, mind checking it?’ — and they […] provided their opinion,” explained Rodford.
In July 2023, South Korea’s Shinhan Bank and Hedera tested cross-border payments using stablecoins.
Previously, the blockchain platform suffered an attack resulting in an undisclosed amount being stolen.