A New Chapter for The HBAR Foundation

Charles Adkins Appointed CEO

We are delighted to announce that we have appointed Charles Adkins as CEO, effective January 1st 2025, and will also be rebranding to Hedera Foundation. This strategic transformation is much more than a leadership and name change; it underscores a deepened commitment to individual users of the Hedera network, promotes financial inclusivity through decentralized finance (DeFi), and drives the broader adoption of Hedera's open-source technology. This marks the beginning of a series of changes designed to enhance operational efficiency across the entire Hedera ecosystem. 

Charles Adkins Steps in as CEO

We are thrilled to welcome Charles Adkins as the incoming CEO of Hedera Foundation who has transitioned from his previous role as President of Hedera Hashgraph, LLC. Charles is a seasoned leader with years of experience in the blockchain and crypto space, having previously worked at Polygon Labs and Aptos. His leadership will be instrumental in steering Hedera Foundation towards achieving significant milestones within the Hedera ecosystem, with a specific focus on AI, tokenization, and digital identity. 

Empowering Users and Community-Driven Innovation

In 2025, Hedera Foundation will launch several initiatives to make DeFi more accessible, providing secure and straightforward tools for the management of digital assets. These initiatives aim to ensure that every user can engage confidently in the emerging financial landscape across the globe.

Central to Hedera Foundation’s strategy is the development of a transparent on-chain grant management platform, empowering the Hedera community to participate directly in the funding process. This innovative platform, set for initial release in Q2 of 2025, will align transparent project support with community needs and values.

Future-Themed Grants and Community Engagement

Looking ahead, we are pleased to introduce some of the potential Hedera Foundation grant themes that will drive strategic objectives within the community-driven grant management software. 

• Developer Ecosystem: Enhancing tools and services to elevate developer engagement within the Hedera ecosystem.
• Annual H-Prize Challenge: Awarding projects that significantly expand Hedera's user base with new active accounts.
• DApps/DeFi: Focusing on supporting high-utility decentralized applications and DeFi solutions.
• Community Growth and Events: Funding Hedera-related meetups, events, and hackathons.
• Integrations and Services: Boosting Hedera's interoperability with other platforms and the related services that will help the network scale and run smoothly.
• Educational Initiatives: Increasing awareness and understanding of Hedera's capabilities through content and documentation.
• Force for Good: Supporting projects that contribute to positive social and global impact.
• Hedera Open: Supporting proposals focused on the creation and submission of fully open source projects.

Note that current HBAR Foundation grantees will continue to be supported as usual, and all agreements will remain in place under the new Hedera Foundation brand.

Outreach Areas of Focus

Hedera Foundation’s enterprise business development efforts will focus on building deeper connections with organizations using the Hedera network to secure AI systems and data, enabling smarter, safer, and more efficient operations. The foundation will also expand tokenization capabilities and use cases, while also supporting digital identity solutions to strengthen online security and trust.

A New Chapter Led by Experienced Leadership

"As we turn the page to this new chapter for the Hedera network, we are not just transforming Hedera Foundation; we are setting the stage for more lasting impacts across the entire ecosystem," said Charles Adkins, new CEO of Hedera Foundation.

Looking Ahead to 2025

As part of this transformation, we’ll be unveiling a new brand identity for Hedera Foundation in early 2025. This is only the beginning—exciting changes are on the way with more updates to come in the new year.