HBAR and the IBM Deal: What Hedera's 27% Jump Really Meant

On September 28, 2026, a social media post listing coins with big-name backers started circulating, with HBAR, Google, IBM and Boeing on the first line. According to the video, HBAR rose about 27% that day, five days after an IBM headline, and then fell about 16% the next day.

If you hold HBAR, or bought it because of the logos attached to it, this matters. The video goes back to the official press release to separate what the IBM deal was from what people assumed it was, explains how Hedera works, and ends with a simple check every holder can run.

What was the IBM deal with Hedera?

The deal was a partnership between IBM and a company called The Hashgraph Group (THG), announced in a press release on September 23, 2026. According to the video, three things happened:

1. THG’s product, ID Trust, was listed in IBM’s cloud catalog, which works like an app store for IBM’s business customers.
2. THG became an IBM Silver Partner.
3. The two signed an agreement letting THG build IBM technology into its own products.

ID Trust gives AI agents, devices and people a digital ID, and those ID records are anchored on Hedera. As AI agents begin acting on behalf of companies, a way to prove an agent is who it says it is makes sense. The release describes it as one of the first commercial Hedera-powered business apps available straight from a major cloud marketplace.

What the IBM announcement did not say

The release did not say IBM bought HBAR or uses it. The video stresses several gaps:

What some buyers assumed	What the release actually says
IBM is buying HBAR	Nothing says IBM bought HBAR
IBM uses HBAR directly	Nothing says IBM uses HBAR itself
Big customers are signed up	No customers were named
A large contract	No contract values were given
Lots of new HBAR demand	No estimate of how much HBAR will be used

The product is real. But the price reaction came days after the news, and much of it reversed the next day. The host notes that anyone who bought on the day of the jump likely bought near the top of the move, and calls it a very human mistake in crypto.

How does Hedera’s hashgraph work?

Hashgraph is a way for computers to agree on the order of transactions without miners. It was invented by Leemon Baird, who, in clips shown in the video, describes being nagged for years by a math problem he first thought was impossible.

In a 2018 explainer, Baird describes a group of computers passing messages to random peers using a “gossip protocol.” Each message spreads quickly until every computer has it. The key idea is that computers share not just transactions but also who they heard them from and when. Baird calls this “gossip about gossip.” From that shared history, every computer can work out the same order of events.

According to the video, this makes the network fast and avoids the heavy energy use of Bitcoin mining. Baird and co-founder Mance Harmon built the Hedera network on it. It opened to the public in 2019, and its coin is HBAR.

Why is Hedera run by a council of big companies?

Hedera is overseen by a governing council of known organizations instead of anonymous miners. According to the video, IBM joined in 2019 and Google in 2020, along with Deutsche Telekom, universities, banks and others.

In a video Hedera published on September 30, 2026, a council member explained that compliance-focused enterprises are uneasy with an unknown party validating their transactions. Baird puts the reasoning more bluntly: he does not trust any big company or any stranger, so the answer is not to let one party control everything, and to spread control across many.

The council is not meant to be a closed club. Members serve limited terms, so seats change, and Hedera publishes council meeting minutes so anyone can read what was decided.

There is also a security reason. Mance Harmon says the main risk is a single bad actor, or a group working together, buying at least a third of the total token supply, which would let them influence the network. That is why who holds the coins and who runs the network matter. The video acknowledges that many in crypto see the council as too centralized, but notes that at least the participants are known.

Do the big companies own Hedera’s code?

No. Hashgraph was originally patented, which was long one of the main criticisms of it. According to the video, the council voted in 2022 to buy the patent rights and release the code as open source. In September 2024, Hedera handed its core code to an independent project under the Linux Foundation called Hiero, which anyone can contribute to and help lead. The video calls this unusual and a good thing.

How does Hedera usage create demand for HBAR?

Apps on Hedera pay fees in HBAR. Mance Harmon, in an interview with Kitco shown in the video, explains that developers building on Hedera must buy HBAR on the open market and pay for network calls with it, and that HBAR also helps secure the network.

The catch is that Hedera sets its fees in dollars and keeps them very small on purpose. A basic HBAR transfer costs a tiny fraction of a cent. That appeals to businesses, but it means a very large amount of activity is needed before fees add up to serious buying of HBAR.

Council membership is also not the same as holding the coin. Google helping run the network does not mean Google holds a pile of HBAR. As the video puts it, the logos show who helps govern the network, not who is buying the coin.

The video’s own figures illustrate this: HBAR’s all-time high was about 57 cents in September 2021, and on October 4, 2026 it traded around 10 cents, roughly 82% below the peak, with big names on the council the whole time.

What changed for HBAR in 2025 and 2026?

Two developments stand out, according to the video:

1. October 28, 2025: Canary Capital launched the first US spot HBAR ETF, on Nasdaq. An ETF is a fund traded like a stock, so people can get HBAR exposure through a normal brokerage account without a wallet.
2. March 17, 2026: The SEC and CFTC named HBAR as one of 16 digital commodities. The video says this gave a much clearer answer, at least for now, to the long-running question of whether coins like HBAR would be treated as securities.

Add the council and products like ID Trust, and the video argues the door is more open to larger investors. But it is clear that none of this says when, or whether, real usage will grow enough to move the price in a lasting way.

A three-question check for HBAR holders

The video points out an irony: Hedera was built so no single party controls everything, yet many holders leave their coins on one exchange, behind one login, run by one company. It suggests this check, done right away:

1. Open the app where your HBAR sits.
2. Write down, in one sentence, why you bought it.
3. Answer who actually holds it: you, or the company.
4. Decide your plan if the price doubles, and if it halves.

The video’s point is that a plan is decided before the news: how much of your money a coin like HBAR should be, and what would make you sell. Buying on headlines is a reaction, and reactions are how many people end up buying high and selling low.

What to watch next

Instead of the next partnership headline, the video suggests tracking four things:

• Named ID Trust customers. A cloud catalog listing is a shop window. Paying customers are the proof.
• Actual network usage. Transactions, apps and money moving through Hedera. Because fees are tiny, volume is what counts.
• Council changes. Who joins and who leaves shows who still sees value in taking part.
• Your own setup. Where your HBAR sits and what your plan is, the one factor you control.

The video’s summary: the IBM news is a real product from a real IBM partner, anchored on Hedera, and a good sign for the network. It is not IBM buying HBAR, and on its own it is not a reason to chase a 27% candle.