Why HBAR could sit in a tight spot despite much to celebrate on Hedera’s part

• Michiel Mulders of Swirlds Labs spoke about HIP-412 and what it aims to achieve.
• Hedera’s NFT space also registered substantial growth lately, but HBAR’s performance was sluggish. 

Hedera’s [HBAR] recent podcast features Michiel Mulders, developer advocate at Swirlds Labs, wherein he discussed HIP-412. 

Special thanks to @michiel_mulders for joining us on the podcast to discuss HIP-412 and #NFT metadata: a commonly overlooked yet critical component of #NFTs. HIP-412 standardizes #HederaNFT metadata for improved interoperability and flexibility?️

?️https://t.co/iICAuQJm7I pic.twitter.com/dJMZDgc4bs

— Hedera (@hedera) April 10, 2023

How much are 1,10,100 HBARs worth today

Before moving further, let’s understand what the Hedera Improvement Proposal (HIP) 412 is. The primary aim of HIP-421 is to standardize the way metadata gets structured for NFTs while maintaining interoperability across other chains. 

As per Hedera, the token metadata has been developed with the input of over a dozen developers and projects in the NFT space. The use cases taken into account for developing the metadata structure include multi-file NFTs, non-image NFTs, and several more.

During the podcast, Michiel Mulders discussed a few key points about the HIP-421, highlighting its importance and how Hedera had plans to implement it. Mulders pointed out the importance of metadata and how sometimes it becomes more important than the NFT itself, citing an example of real estate NFTs. 

He also mentioned several use cases for NFT metadata, such as licensing. Additionally, Mulders added that NFT explorers and NFT wallets are the first places in which Hedera wants to implement the HIP-421.

Hedera’s performance in the NFT space

HIP-421 can be a game changer for Hedera NFTs, as standardization can also help improve scalability. The implementation can further help Hedera’s NFT space to grow, which has already registered a massive surge in metrics over the last 30 days. 

Santiment’s chart revealed that in the last month, Hedera witnessed a massive surge in the total number of NFT trade counts and trade volume in USD. 

Source: Santiment

Thanks to the hike in trade counts, the number of NFT holders also increased, which was pretty optimistic. The amount of unique addresses that bought more than $1,000 and $100,000 NFTs also rose sharply.

Source: Santiment

Is HBAR on the profit making train then?

Though Hedera’s NFT space was booming, the same can’t be said for the network’s native token, HBAR. While most cryptos registered gains, thanks to the bullish market condition, HBAR’s performance wasn’t at par with the others. 

According to CoinMarketCap, HBAR’s weekly chart was red. Though its price increased by more than 1% in the last 24 hours, the gain was not as high as several others. At press time, HBAR was trading at $0.06629 with a market capitalization of over $2 billion.

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

What metrics suggested

It was interesting to see that despite HBAR’s sluggish price action, its demand in the futures market was high, as evident from its Binance funding rate. 

HBAR’s social volume was also high, indicating its popularity in the crypto space. However, negative sentiments around HBAR were dominant, as its weighted sentiment remained low.

Source: Santiment