Hedera: As positive developments spur network, will HBAR rally

• HBAR, the native token of Hedera, surged 13% over the last week.
• HBAR’s Open Interest jumped 62% to $18 million in the last 24 hours.

The Hedera [HBAR] network has made all the right moves since the beginning of 2023. Now, its unique Hashgraph technology has caught the attention of other participants in the crypto space.

Read Hedera’s [HBAR] Price Prediction 2023-24

Fathom this. HBAR surged 13% over the last week and in the last 24 hours, it recorded gains of 6.36%, as per CoinMarketCap. The token’s market cap has more than doubled to $2.16 billion on a year-to-date (YTD) basis, allowing it to break into the list of top 30 cryptos by market cap.

And now, the community has some more reasons to cheer.

Recognition from the U.S. government

As per a press release shared by the United States Department of State, Hedera was recognized for its resolve to further the ideals of democracy through the use of its blockchain technology.

Hedera stated that it would invite companies, trade associations, advocacy groups, academics and government officials in a democracy roundtable to discuss how distributed ledger technology (DLT) can help in bringing transparency and defending civic rights.

The commitments were in response to the government’s ‘Call To Advance Democracy’, which required the active participation of the private sector.

1/3 Today at @POTUS’ #SummitForDemocracy, #Hedera has made a commitment to convene a democracy roundtable on how #blockchain technologies can and are supporting human rights, #transparency, and #sustainability through #DLT-enabled applications.https://t.co/pyrGjXt0if

— Hedera (@hedera) March 29, 2023

While the network scored big on corporate social responsibility (CSR) parameters, it also forged big partnerships to expand its reach.

As per a tweet by HBAR Foundation, Fresh Supply Co (FSCO), which was the largest user of payments giant Mastercard’s blockchain system, will move all of its existing operations to the Hedera network.

We’re excited to announce that @FreshSupplyCoAu, the largest user of @Mastercard Provenance and partner of @CommBank, has migrated from the private #Mastercard blockchain to @Hedera for Real-World Asset (RWA) tokenization ⚡️ pic.twitter.com/LiRzDdcGck

— HBAR Foundation (@HBAR_foundation) March 30, 2023

Hedera network upgrade approaches

The Hedera community eagerly awaited the mainnet upgrade to v0.35.2, slated for 31 March. However, users could expect some disruption to network services during this time.

The development activity picked up decisively and has been going uphill throughout its course in March, which was a good sign for a network waiting for an upgrade, per Santiment. Positive developments pushed the transaction volume to its one-month high of $173 million at press time.

Realistic or not, here’s HBAR market cap in BTC’s terms

The social mentions of HBAR on crypto-focused channels increased 2x as of 30 March.

There was a growing demand for HBAR in the futures and perpetual futures markets. The dollar value locked in active contracts jumped 62% to $18 million in the last 24 hours, with over 66% of the total Open Intereest (OI) in Binance.