Distributed ledger technology firm Hedera Hashgraph LLC has delayed issuing tokens to investors sold in an initial coin offering in an effort to stabilize the price of the tokens as they continue to drop in value.
Hedera Hashgraph, founded in 2018, is a venture capital-backed company supported by the likes of IBM Corp. that is building a public distributed ledger for building decentralized applications. The company has raised $128 million including $110 million through two ICOs to accredited investors, but the release of tokens in blocks has also seen their value decline.
HBAR tokens traded as high as 10.2127 cents on debut in September, but in subsequent releases, the token’s price has fallen nearly 90%. The tokens were trading at 1.15316 cents as of 7:55 p.m. EST, with the decline continuing even following the announcement that the release of future token releases had been delayed.
The reason why the price has declined is a relatively simple one: They’re not being used. “The rate of adoption and demand for HBARs to use on the network has not been what we originally expected, however we are confident that the initiatives that the Council is undertaking will bring the Hedera network closer to achieving the goal,” Hedera Hashgraph co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Mance Harmon wrote in a letter to investors Tuesday.
The company, in delaying the release, is offering compensation to investors. In return for delayed distribution, investors are being offered more tokens in addition to the original simple agreement for future tokens they paid for.
“Participating SAFT holders would receive additional allocations of coins, made on an annual basis, the cumulative sum of which, over time, would equal the value of their original principal investment, in exchange for stretching out the release schedule for their remaining coins,” Harmon added.
The release of the additional tokens will be based on the pace of network adoption meaning that it is reliant on that uptake. But that said, the prospects for the company going forward would, in theory, seem to be solid.
As well as being supported by IBM, Hedera Hashgraph also counts Boeing Co., Deutsche Telekom AG, DLA Piper, Magalu, Nomura Holdings Inc. and Tata Communications Ltd. among its users.
Hedera Hashgraph co-founder and Chief Scientist Leemon Baird spoke to SiliconANGLE’s video studio theCUBE in March 2018 discussing the prospects of the company going forward as well as the technology the company is using:
Image: Hedera
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