First US HBAR Trust Ignites Speculation on Hedera ETF Launch

• Canary Capital has launched the industry’s first Hedera Trust product in the US.
• With this offering, the speculation around Hedera ETF is now higher.

Digital asset-focused investment firm Canary Capital announced on Tuesday the launch of the first HBAR Trust in the United States. This move has sparked discussions over the launch of a potential Hedera Exchange-Traded Fund (ETF).

Details of Canary’s HBAR Trust

The Canary HBAR Trust is a private offering that offers eligible investors safe access to HBAR, the native token powering the Hedera network. Accordingly, eligible institutional accredited investors can now invest funds in HBAR, marking an important milestone for the token. 

Steven McClurg, Canary Capital’s CEO, emphasized that HBAR Trust aims to give new opportunities to US institutional investors willing to capitalize on the accelerating demand for crypto-related products. Beyond the Trust, Canary also provides hedge fund alternatives, such as crypto and fixed-income barbell approaches tailored to institutional clients.

Crypto has seen increased demand from traditional institutions since the US spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs launched. Thus, Canary Capital strives to take a slice of the market through the first US HBAR Trust launch. 

The launch of the Trust strengthens Hedera’s position as a leading enterprise-grade, Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) that continues to see real growth potential. As investors seek new ways to access cryptocurrency, the Trust also potentially paves the way for other HBAR-focused investment vehicles like ETFs. 

It is important to note that Steven McClurg is a co-founder at Valkyrie Funds, known for its Bitcoin ETF launch. McClurg’s position at Valkyrie likely contributed to the growing speculations of a potential Hedera ETF launch.

This is in addition to Hedera’s prominence in the asset tokenization sector, NFT issuance, and Web3 application development and deployment. As Hedera continues to gain traction, market participants believe an ETF might be the next sensible step to further institutional adoption.

HBAR, Solana, and XRP are among the cryptocurrencies speculated for a potential ETF launch soon. As CNF noted in a previous post, Grayscale’s recent launch of XRP Trust has spurred speculation regarding the possibility of an XRP ETF launch in the United States soon.

How Is HBAR Reacting to the News?

Meanwhile, the Canary Trust and heightened Hedera ETF speculations have failed to boost the price of HBAR. 

Hedera was among the big gainers in the crypto market at the end of September. As CNF mentioned earlier, HBAR hit a weekly high of $0.05797 following a 16.5% increase. The cryptocurrency has since shed some of its gains, trading at $0.05455 as of this writing. HBAR, currently ranked the 44th largest digital asset, dropped by 7.4% in 24 hours and 9% in the past week.

The decline, however, follows a general crypto market downturn, which saw Bitcoin dropping to $61,000 from the $65,000 price range. Still, Hedera’s trading volume registered a 57% surge in the past day to $74 million, demonstrating investors’ confidence in the token.