Hedera is a public ledger designed for businesses, run by a council of large companies and powered by a consensus algorithm called hashgraph rather than a conventional blockchain. Its token, HBAR, pays network fees and secures the network through proof-of-stake. Transactions confirm in a few seconds with fees fixed in US-dollar terms at fractions of a cent. In short, Hedera crypto is the enterprise-friendly corner of the market: predictable costs, a corporate governing council, and a growing tokenization and payments focus. This guide covers its history, how hashgraph works, how to stake HBAR, and a scenario-based look at where HBAR’s price could go.
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Key takeaways:
- Hedera uses hashgraph, a “gossip about gossip” consensus with fast, final settlement, invented by Leemon Baird.
- A council of up to 39 organizations with fixed terms governs the network; this brings credibility and centralization in equal measure.
- HBAR’s supply is capped at 50 billion, with about 44 billion circulating in late 2026.
- Native HBAR staking has no lockup and no slashing; you choose a node and keep full control of your tokens.
- The core code is open source and was contributed to the Linux Foundation as “Hiero” in 2024, which corrects an outdated claim that hashgraph remains patented and closed.
History and Founders
Dr. Leemon Baird, a computer scientist and former US Air Force Academy professor, developed the hashgraph algorithm and co-founded Swirlds with Mance Harmon to commercialize it. Swirlds initially licensed hashgraph for private, permissioned networks. In 2018 the pair announced Hedera Hashgraph as a public network, raising money through token sales and forming a governing council of established companies to run the first nodes.
Hedera’s mainnet opened to the public in September 2019, when HBAR also began trading. Through the early 2020s the council grew to include names such as Google, IBM, Boeing, LG, Deutsche Telekom, Dell and Ubisoft, among others. Members serve limited terms and each runs a node.
Several milestones changed the picture over time:
- 2022: the council acquired the hashgraph intellectual property from Swirlds and open-sourced the codebase under the Apache 2.0 license. Native HBAR staking went live in July 2022.
- March 2023: an attacker exploited a flaw in the Smart Contract Service code to drain tokens from several Hedera DEX liquidity pools (roughly half a million dollars). Hedera temporarily shut off mirror node proxies to stop the attack and then patched the bug.
- September 2024: Hedera contributed its codebase to the Linux Foundation’s decentralized trust initiative under the name Hiero, putting development under vendor-neutral governance.
- Late 2025 onward: spot HBAR exchange-traded products appeared in the US, including Canary’s HBAR ETF, giving brokerage investors a route to exposure.
How Hedera Works
In a typical blockchain, a leader bundles transactions into a block and others vote on it. Hashgraph does something different. Every node constantly “gossips” new transactions to random peers, and with each message it also shares the history of who told it what. This “gossip about gossip” creates a shared graph of events. From that graph, each node can calculate how others would vote without sending vote messages (“virtual voting”), arriving at the same order of transactions.
The practical results for users:
- Finality in seconds: once a transaction reaches consensus, typically within a few seconds, it cannot be reorganized.
- Fair ordering: transactions are timestamped by the median time nodes received them, which makes front-running harder.
- Fixed USD fees: fees are priced in dollars and converted to HBAR. An HBAR transfer costs a small fraction of a cent, and network-wide average costs were reported around $0.0007 per transaction in October 2026.
- Native services: the Hedera Token Service lets companies issue tokens without writing smart contracts; the Consensus Service timestamps messages for supply chains and audit logs; the Smart Contract Service runs EVM-compatible Solidity contracts.
Hashgraph is “asynchronous Byzantine fault tolerant”, a strong safety property, but it assumes the council-run nodes behave. Hedera has a roadmap to permissionless nodes; check its current status before assuming the network is as open as Ethereum.
Tokenomics
| Item | Detail |
|---|---|
| Maximum supply | 50 billion HBAR, all created at genesis |
| Circulating supply | About 44 billion in late 2026; the remainder is held by the Hedera treasury and released for ecosystem and operations |
| Uses | Network fees, staking to secure consensus nodes, paying node operators |
| Inflation | None from minting; new circulation comes from treasury releases |
Watch the treasury’s quarterly disclosures: releases from the remaining few billion HBAR are the main source of new circulating supply.
Staking Hedera: How It Works and Step by Step
Hedera’s staking is unusually simple. You don’t lock tokens or send them anywhere. Instead, you set your account to “stake to” a consensus node, and your whole balance counts toward that node’s weight. Here’s how:
- Get a Hedera wallet such as HashPack, Blade or Kabila. Write down the recovery phrase offline.
- Buy HBAR on an exchange (see below) and withdraw to your Hedera account ID (format 0.0.xxxxx). Some exchanges require a memo; enter it if asked.
- Choose a node. In the wallet’s staking section, pick a council-run consensus node. Rewards are the same across nodes that meet the network’s minimum stake requirements, so choose based on uptime.
- Confirm the staking update. It costs a tiny fee. Your HBAR stays in your wallet and remains spendable.
- Collect rewards. Rewards are calculated per 24-hour staking period (you must be staked for a full period) and are paid to your account when it next takes part in a transaction. Any small transfer triggers the payout.
The council sets the reward rate, which has stayed in low single digits annually; check your wallet or the Hedera dashboard for the current figure. There’s no slashing and no unbonding period, so the main risk is HBAR’s price. Liquid staking options such as Stader’s HBARX exist if you want to use staked HBAR in DeFi, at the cost of added smart-contract risk. For screenshots and exchange options, see our full how to stake Hedera guide, and compare platforms in our best staking platforms roundup.
How to Buy HBAR
HBAR trades on most major exchanges, including Coinbase, Kraken, Binance and others depending on your country. Compare fees and withdrawal support in our best crypto exchange guide. If you want staking rewards from the protocol itself, withdraw to your own Hedera wallet; leaving HBAR on an exchange means relying on that exchange’s earn product, if it offers one. US investors who prefer brokerage accounts can also look at spot HBAR ETFs, keeping in mind their annual fees.
For exchanges, account IDs and HBAR ETFs, follow our step-by-step guide on how to buy Hedera (HBAR) before you set up staking.
Use Cases
- Tokenization: stablecoins, funds and other real-world assets using the Token Service
- Audit trails: supply-chain tracking, carbon credit records and data integrity using the Consensus Service
- Payments and micropayments: fixed, tiny fees make small transfers practical
- DeFi: a modest ecosystem including SaucerSwap, a DEX, and lending protocols, far smaller than Ethereum or Solana
HBAR Price Outlook: Scenarios, Not Predictions
Hedera was trading near $0.0770 on 26 October 2026, a market cap of roughly $3.4 billion. For bear, base and bull ranges through 2026, 2027 and 2030, with the supply maths and assumptions behind each, see our Hedera price prediction.
Pros and Cons
- Pro: fast finality and predictable, very low fees
- Pro: credible governing council and an open-source codebase under the Linux Foundation
- Pro: simple staking with no lockup or slashing
- Con: permissioned node set; council control limits decentralization
- Con: enterprise “partnerships” don’t always translate into on-chain usage
- Con: smaller developer and DeFi ecosystem than leading smart-contract chains
FAQ
Is Hedera a blockchain?
Technically no. Hedera uses a hashgraph, a data structure in which events reference earlier events, rather than a linear chain of blocks. It does the same job, providing a tamper-evident, ordered record of transactions, and it bundles records into block-like files for compatibility with tools. For most users, the difference is academic; the practical differences are speed and fees.
Is staking Hedera safe?
Native HBAR staking is among the lowest-risk staking setups: tokens never leave your wallet, there’s no lockup and no slashing. The risks are price movements and wallet security, plus smart-contract risk if you use a liquid staking token. Reward rates are modest and set by the council, so don’t expect high yields.
Is Hedera open source?
Yes. The council bought the hashgraph IP from Swirlds and released the code under the Apache 2.0 license in 2022, and in 2024 the codebase was contributed to the Linux Foundation as Hiero. Older articles describing hashgraph as patented and closed are out of date.
Who controls Hedera?
The Hedera Council, a group of up to 39 organizations from different industries and regions, each serving limited terms and running a node. The council votes on software upgrades, fees and treasury decisions. That makes Hedera more centralized than Bitcoin or Ethereum, a trade-off it accepts for predictability and enterprise trust.
Crypto is volatile and risky; this is education, not financial advice. Do your own research.
