Distributed ledger cryptocurrency platform Hedera (HBAR) has suffered a massive capital outflow of almost $1 billion after it turned out that news of a collaboration with semiconductor giant Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) was a hoax.
The false report claimed that Nvidia was exploring ways to integrate Hedera’s technology for real-time verification of artificial intelligence-generated data.
Investors reacted swiftly, pumping HBAR’s market capitalization by about $2 billion and pushing the value to approximately $6.99 billion on April 8.
However, when it emerged that the news was fake, Hedera’s market cap dropped back to $6.03 billion, a loss of $960 million, before settling at around $6.31 billion at press time.
The false claim was initially circulated via a LinkedIn post, which quickly raised several red flags.
For instance, the LinkedIn account behind the post had only two prior entries, lacked any legitimate connection to Nvidia, and the employee mentioned in the publication could not be found in public records as being associated with the artificial intelligence giant.
Additionally, neither Nvidia nor Hedera issued any official statement confirming the collaboration.
HBAR price analysis
As expected, the selling pressure has taken a toll on HBAR’s price, which is already in the midst of a broader market sell-off. At the time of reporting, the asset was valued at $0.1503, a decline of over 6% in the last 24 hours. On the weekly timeframe, Hedera has dropped 11%.
According to its technical setup, which remains weak, Hedera’s sentiment is bearish. The price is below the 50-day simple moving average (SMA) of $0.207583 and the 200-day SMA of $0.18421, suggesting downward momentum in both the short and long term.
Lastly, the Fear & Greed Index is at 26, signaling fear, which often correlates with further downside or potential accumulation zones.
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