Fed Chair Powell Speech and Hedera Upgrade Ahead: Will HBAR Price Break Out?

As the crypto market prepares for the much-anticipated Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speech and the Hedera mainnet upgrade, the HBAR community is holding its breath. Although the HBAR token is struggling to break free from its two-month downtrend, these key events are poised to significantly impact the price.

The Fed Chair, Jerome Powell’s speech, in particular, could have far-reaching implications on the broader crypto market. As this key event coincides with the Hedera mainnet launch, it could have a double impact on the HBAR cryptocurrency.

Jerome Powell’s Speech

This week is poised to witness a series of key macroeconomic events, of which the Fed Chair, Jerome Powell’s speech, carries significant weight. On Tuesday, the Fed Chair is expected to deliver a key address, providing crucial insights into the central bank’s potential decisions on interest rate cuts. The Trump-appointed governor, Stephen Miran, is also addressing the audience, offering key details on the monetary policy.

Notably, the Federal Reserve is in a period of policy flux, with a light data schedule ahead of its crucial October 28-29 meeting. Investors widely expect another quarter-point rate cut to mitigate job market risks.

As the crypto market is highly sensitive to macroeconomic events, especially related to the Fed, the community is eagerly awaiting the speech. Even Powell’s tone could hint at the bank’s potential move, which could influence the trajectory of cryptocurrencies, including HBAR. For instance, if the Chair hints at a dovish stance, it could possibly spark a rally, but a hawkish approach could trigger a downtrend.

Hedera Mainnet Upgrade

Significantly, the Hedera Mainnet upgrade to v0.65 is scheduled on Wednesday, September 24. As the new version introduces powerful state management capabilities, scheduled transaction fee controls, and other significant advancements, the HBAR token is poised for a major price surge following the event.

What are the Major Enhancements?

Significantly, the Hedera Mainnet upgrade v0.65 will have three major highlights. They are:

• Virtual Mega Map: The Virtual Mega Map is a crucial enhancement to Hedera’s internal state data structure. By consolidating all entities, including singletons, queues, and maps, into a single virtual map, it ensures that the entire state is represented by a unified root hash. The key benefit of this design is the enhanced verifiability. With a single root hash, state and block item proofs are simplified, particularly for block streams, making it easier to verify the integrity of the network’s state.
• HIP 991 Enhancements: The Hedera Improvement Proposal (HIP-991) enhancements in release v0.65 introduce support for max_custom fees in scheduled transactions. This update ensures that topic operators using Hedera Consensus Service (HCS) have clearer bounds on fees for scheduled transactions.  The key benefits of this enhancement include predictable fees, alignment with HTS, and developer guardrails.
• HIP-1056 and HIP-1127: The latest release builds on the previous Block Stream work, introducing significant advancements with HIP-1056 and HIP-1127. A key development is the Unified Transaction Record in Block Stream, as outlined in the HIP-1127. This update addresses historical duplication in transaction representation, establishing a single, unified standard for the block stream while maintaining complete backward compatibility for existing applications. Key benefits include improved performance and scalability, future-proofing, and reduced state size.

Will HBAR Price Surge?

As the Fed Chair’s speech, a highly influential macroeconomic event, coincides with the Hedera mainnet launch, investors and analysts are closely monitoring HBAR’s price in anticipation of a potentially significant impact. In addition, the HBAR ETF filing has also sparked renewed interest in the token. 

Over the past few weeks, the cryptocurrency has been trading within a tight range. As the market opened today, the HBAR token traded at $0.2400, reflecting a rebound of over 80% from its yearly low. However, it is still 23% below its year-to-date peak of $0.3050.

Currently, Hedera crypto is trading at $0.2200, down by a notable 7% dip. The price has experienced massive drops of 5.1% and 11.3% over the past week and month, respectively. Despite this drop, traders are increasingly becoming optimistic about the token in anticipation of the upcoming events. This is significantly evident in the staggering 140% hike in the 24-hour trading volume, currently at $364 million.