FedEx Joins Hedera Council to Digitize Global Supply Chains

The announcement positions FedEx alongside other notable corporate members of the Hedera Council, including Google, IBM, Dell Technologies, LG, Deutsche Telekom, and Ubisoft. By joining this governance body, FedEx is not merely adopting a technology but actively shaping its development. The company will run a network node and participate in governance decisions, contributing what Hedera Council President Tom Sylvester called “deep operational insight into global logistics and commerce.” This move is framed as supporting FedEx’s broader vision to enable commerce to operate at “digital speed,” moving decisively away from legacy, paper-based processes that have long characterized global trade.

Vishal Talwar, executive VP and chief digital and information officer of FedEx Corp., articulated the core challenge: as supply chains become “increasingly digital-native,” there is a critical need for “trusted data” to be “shared and verified across many parties without increasing risk or centralizing control.” This statement directly addresses key pain points in logistics—fraud, inefficiency, and lack of transparency—that distributed ledger technology (DLT) is designed to solve. FedEx’s involvement lends substantial real-world credibility to Hedera’s enterprise-focused approach, suggesting the network is maturing beyond conceptual use cases into practical, large-scale implementation.

Central to FedEx’s rationale is Hedera’s positioning as a “neutral, enterprise-grade trust layer.” Unlike public, permissionless blockchains that can face scalability and governance challenges, Hedera’s council-governed model offers a structured environment favored by large corporations. Talwar emphasized that this foundation allows for verification at a global scale while still permitting organizations like FedEx to “continue building differentiated capabilities on top.” This indicates a strategic view where Hedera provides the underlying infrastructure for data integrity and consensus, upon which companies can layer their proprietary applications and services for competitive advantage.

The focus on supply chain optimization is a long-standing narrative for DLT and blockchain networks. By joining the Hedera Council, FedEx is betting that a cooperative, multi-stakeholder model is the best path to building the “open, cooperative digital infrastructure” needed for global trade. The council’s composition, featuring technology giants and now a logistics leader, is designed to ensure the network meets the rigorous demands of cross-border commerce, including interoperability across different industries and legal jurisdictions, as noted by Sylvester.

The news arrives as Hedera’s native cryptocurrency, HBAR, shows mixed signals. At the time of the announcement, the token was down about 1% on the day to approximately $0.094, though it had gained 7% over the preceding week. More starkly, the price remains 83% below its all-time high of nearly $0.57, set during the crypto market peak in 2021. This disparity highlights a recurring theme in enterprise crypto adoption: significant corporate partnerships and technological progress do not always translate into immediate, positive price action for the associated digital asset.

Instead, the value proposition for council members like FedEx, Google, and IBM appears rooted in the utility of the network itself—its speed, security, and governance structure—rather than short-term token speculation. FedEx’s entry is a vote of confidence in Hedera’s long-term viability as a public ledger for business. For investors, the growing roster of blue-chip council members may be seen as strengthening the network’s fundamentals and potential for widespread adoption, even if the HBAR token’s price continues to grapple with broader crypto market volatility and its distance from past highs.