An analysis by YouTube commentator Fire Hustle argues that Canary Capital's HBAR ETF filings present a more nuanced picture than headline inflow figures suggest. According to the video, while the fund accumulated hundreds of millions of HBAR tokens, only a fraction of the capital disclosed in its SEC filings appears to reflect direct open-market purchases.

This distinction is relevant for investors evaluating whether spot ETF demand is generating immediate buying pressure in the HBAR market. In-kind contributions—a mechanism used across spot crypto ETFs, including approved Bitcoin ETFs, where authorized participants deliver the underlying asset rather than cash—can involve tokens already held by those participants rather than freshly purchased on the open market. At the time of the video, HBAR was trading near $0.07, well below the approximately $0.40 levels referenced for late 2024 and parts of 2021.

Most HBAR Arrived Through In-Kind Contributions

Citing Canary's most recent quarterly 10-Q filing for the period ending March 31, the commentator noted that the fund held more than 570 million HBAR, acquired at a reported cost of approximately $98 million. This implies an average acquisition cost near $0.17 per token, compared against net assets of roughly $50 million and an accumulated deficit exceeding $48 million.

The more notable figure highlighted in the analysis is the split between direct purchases and HBAR described as "contributed in kind." From late October through December 2025, the fund reportedly purchased approximately 158 million HBAR directly while receiving another 358 million HBAR as in-kind contributions associated with share creation.

In the subsequent quarter, the fund purchased around 32 million HBAR and received roughly 68 million through in-kind contributions.

Based on this breakdown, the commentator estimated that approximately $22 million of the fund's nearly $98 million in paid-in capital was directed toward outright HBAR purchases. The remainder represented tokens delivered to the fund by share-creation participants. Those participants may have acquired HBAR on the open market beforehand, though the filing does not disclose their sourcing.

Zero Redemptions During HBAR Price Decline

The filing also showed that 740,000 fund shares were created during the first quarter, with zero shares redeemed. The commentator emphasized that the fund's HBAR holdings increased from approximately 473 million at the end of December to more than 700 million by late July, despite HBAR's declining price over that period.

The analysis frames the absence of redemptions as a potentially constructive signal, while acknowledging it does not explain why investors or authorized participants maintained their positions. Holdings data alone does not reveal whether ETF demand originated from long-term institutional investors, market makers, or in-kind share creation activity.

Beyond the ETF figures, the commentator pointed to Hedera's 2025 Governing Council additions, which include FedEx, McLaren Racing, Accenture, Google, and IBM. Hedera's council-based governance model, which places large corporations in validator and governance roles, is uncommon among Layer 1 blockchains and has been central to the network's positioning toward enterprise use cases. The video also referenced Hedera's July integration with institutional wallet provider Utilia, as well as its relationship with Archax, which offers tokenized assets tied to firms such as BlackRock, Aberdeen, and Fidelity.