Tezos (XTZ) Arrives on Coinbase

After a short run on Coinbase Pro, Tezos (XTZ) will be available to users of the Coinbase App and for mainstream trading.

Tezos (XTZ)became the next asset to be added to Coinbase.com, the Coinbase App, and is now available for mainstream trading. The XTZ asset arrived after spending a few weeks on Coinbase Pro. XTZ will be available to all regions covered by Coinbase, with the exception of New York state.

The news lifted XTZ only slightly, to $1.49, adding about 5% to the price in the past day, though with a sharper spike right after the listing announcement late on Thursday. XTZ had already discounted the hype of a possible Coinbase listing, hence remaining at the current price range.

While in the past a Coinbase listing meant the potential for significant appreciation, the current trading climate shows distrust of altcoins. The XTZ listing arrives at the tail end of what turned out to be a prolonged bear market for altcoins, with only a small-scale rally in the spring of 2019. Now, altcoins are still under pressure, while Bitcoin (BTC) has taken over as a source of growth and market dominance.

Coinbase Pro managed to take over the bulk of Tezos trading, and in theory, Coinbase.com may add to the volumes. XTZ is otherwise more thinly traded on Kraken and a handful of additional exchanges.

The XTZ asset allows for a form of staking, where holding the funds with Coinbase also pays out rewards. Coinbase Custody signs up the locked assets for “baking”, avoiding the dilution by newly created coins.

XTZ also suffered setbacks after the official launch of the code was delayed, and buyers of the ICO held onto “tezzies”, or preliminary tokens, which depreciated sharply due to loss of trust. The other problem for the Tezos project were doubts about the security status of the tokens.

XTZ hovers around the range of coins with $1 billion in market capitalization. For now, the coin failed to rally to prices resembling the range of Ethereum (ETH), or NEO, competing with earlier platform coins.

Based on theblock explorer, the Tezos network carries around 7,419 transactions per day, a relatively small activity compared to more established assets. Owning XTZ means users will be capable of participating in an ongoing voting process to update the list of “bakers”.