BlackRock Rejects Hedera Hashgraph Tokenization

BlackRock has denied a commercial relationship with Hedera or selecting the Hedera Hashgraph to tokenize any BlackRock funds. This clarification came after an announcement by the HBAR Foundation led to a misinterpretation that BlackRock was actively involved in tokenizing the ICS U.S. Treasury Fund on Hedera. Archax, not BlackRock, made the decision to tokenize shares of the fund and informed BlackRock before issuing a press release.

BlackRock Denies Tokenization of Funds on Hedera Hashgraph

BlackRock, Inc., the world's largest asset manager, has unequivocally denied any commercial relationship with Hedera Hashgraph or the tokenization of its funds on the platform, including its $22 billion money market fund.

The clarification comes after a surge in the price of Hedera's native token, HBAR, following an announcement by the HBAR Foundation that blockchain firms Archax and Ownera had tokenized BlackRock's ICS U.S. Treasury Fund on Hedera.

In response to inquiries from Cointelegraph, a BlackRock spokesperson stated, "BlackRock has no commercial relationship with Hedera nor has BlackRock selected Hedera to tokenize any BlackRock funds."

The spokesperson emphasized that BlackRock will continue to communicate directly with the public regarding any developments in its digital asset strategy, as it has done in the past.

Despite the initial euphoria surrounding the announcement, HBAR's price has since experienced significant volatility, dropping over 30% in the wake of the clarification.

The initial misunderstanding stemmed from the HBAR Foundation's announcement, which left some readers to interpret that BlackRock had actively participated in the tokenization effort. However, subsequent clarifications from both BlackRock and Archax have rectified this misconception.

Archax CEO Graham Rodford explained in an interview with cryptocurrency influencer Jesus Martinez that the decision to tokenize shares of BlackRock's money market fund on Hedera was made solely by Archax, with BlackRock's knowledge.

"We saw on Twitter was kind of pretty much close to the truth," said Rodford. "Archax had clients that wanted to invest in the BlackRock money market fund. When they expressed an interest, we opened an account at BlackRock so that we could."

"With most of the investments we make, we want to tokenize them, we told them [BlackRock] we were going to and then just out of the good relationship with them, we said 'hey, we're putting out a press release, you guys happy to check it?' — so they checked it and gave their views on it," he added.

Rodford clarified that while BlackRock was informed of Archax's intention to tokenize its funds, the asset manager did not actively participate in the process.

"Some kind of went a bit off track, saying 'hey, BlackRock did this, BlackRock did that, BlackRock were involved' [...] but Archax has been leading the project," he said.

It is worth noting that Archax's decision to tokenize BlackRock's fund on Hedera does not constitute an endorsement of the platform by BlackRock. The asset manager has maintained a cautious stance toward cryptocurrencies, limiting its involvement to researching and exploring the potential applications of digital assets.

Despite the initial excitement surrounding the HBAR Foundation's announcement, the subsequent clarifications have served to temper expectations. HBAR remains significantly below its historical high of $0.57, reached in September 2021, and has lost over 78% of its value since then.

Cointelegraph's attempts to reach the HBAR Foundation for comment have been unsuccessful at this time.