- HBAR’s non-profit arm, The Hashgraph Association, has signed a $50 million contract with Qatar.
- The strategic partnership is centered around building a digital asset studio.
- Hedera’s distributed ledger chain welcomes more than 133,000 new wallets per week.
Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR) is known to make a strong case for adoption through various partnerships established by the blockchain’s parent company. A month ago, HBAR received a powerful boost when BlackRock’s money market fund (MMF) launched on Hedera’s chain.
The Hashgraph Association, an independent, non-profit organization, has made great strides in bringing the capabilities of this unique blockchain to a national level through partnerships with government agencies. In February 2024, Hashgraph Association signed a five-year agreement with the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Investment (MISA).
HBAR signs contract to build digital asset studio in Qatar
Last February, the Saudi Arabian government invested $250 million in a project to build the DeepTech Venture Studio in Riyadh. In doing so, it aims to leverage advances in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, virtual reality, and more.
This time, Hashgraph Association signed an agreement with Qatar, one of the richest countries in the world. The Hashgraph Association is being trusted to establish a Digital Assets Venture Studio to rapidly accelerate research and development in the digital financial landscape through its $50 million development fund.
Qatar’s Digital Asset Lab, located within the QFC Innovation Dome, supports new digital asset venture studios as part of Qatar’s “National Vision 2030”. Additionally, HBAR’s venture studio tends to focus on building highly profitable decentralized financial solutions.
According to Yousuf Mohamed Al-Jaida, CEO of Qatar Financial Centre, this new partnership “plays an important role in advancing our efforts to develop and launch innovative projects that will establish Qatar as a financial and commercial hub by 2030. “
Qatar partnership creates new wallet creation
The Venture Studio will last four years and will complete the initiative by 2028, empowering local businesses in Qatar. The Hashgraph Association will donate 20% of the $50 million fund, providing tutoring, engineering, fundraising and development services to local startups and businesses.
Additionally, companies participating in the $50 million Digital Assets Venture Studio program will have access to digital asset solutions, including tokenization of Real World Assets (RWA) on HBAR’s distributed ledger.
This strategic initiative has already paid off with an increase in the number of new wallets on the Hedera blockchain. The application was announced in Doha on May 15, creating more than 83,000 new wallets on Hedera’s distributed ledger. The price of HBAR remained consolidated, rising 1.1% in the last 24 hours.
As of press time, Hedera Hashgraph is trading at $0.11 and has a 24-hour trading volume of $80 million. With a gain of about 108% on a year-to-date basis, HBAR is still more than 80% below its all-time high hit at $0.5692 on September 15, 2021, two and a half years ago.
On the flip side
- HBAR’s 60% surge on April 24, 2024 was short-lived due to the popular misconception that BlackRock was directly involved in MMF tokenization transactions.
- A few days after BlackRock deployed its money market funds on Hedera, the large investment management firm addressed the issue in its X update.
- BlackRock cited Archax as the initiator of the ICS U.S. Treasury money market fund (MMF) on-chain distribution and denied any direct involvement.
Why This Matters
The $50 million incubator targets regulatory compliant structured finance products based on blockchain technology. This collaboration between blockchain developers and government agencies opens the door to clearer global cryptocurrency regulation.
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