Source: iStock/PashaIgnatov

Tezos (XTZ), a blockchain looking to establish itself as a smart contract platform with self-amendment and on-chain governance, just entered the top 10 coins club after raising 297% in a year. (Updated at 13:23 UTC: updates in bold.)

The coin surpassed Stellar (XLM) and is now 10th with market capitalization of almost USD 1.2 billion, compared with Stellar’s USD 1 billion. Bitcoin SV (BSV), ranked 9th, has market capitalization of almost USD 1.7 billion.

At pixel time (05:06 UTC), XTZ trades at c. USD 1.73, and is up by 11.4% in the past 24 hours and by 34% in a week, increasing its monthly gains to 48%.

XTZ price chart:

Source: coinpaprika.com

“The entire action of crypto market this week can be summarized in a single cliché: Pump & Dump. It started with Matic at the beginning of the week but now seems to be spreading to a more serious project: Tezos,” Mati Greenspan, Founder of QuantumEconomics.io, said in his newsletter today.

He stressed that Matic’s current market cap is about USD 41 million, where Tezos is now well over USD 1 billion: “So it would likely take a much larger amount of capital to move the price, making a coordinated manipulation effort a lot more difficult.”

According to him, what we’re seeing here is “the typical heard mentality that often encapsulates this young underdeveloped market.”

Meanwhile, the Bitwise 10 Index, designed to track the broad-based performance of the cryptocurrency market as reflected in a basket of the ten largest coins, said recently that XTZ entered the index as the tenth largest component; it replaced Dash (DASH).

Moreover, the CEO of Singaporean hedge fund Three Arrows Capital, Su Zhu, claims that “the Bitwise 10 has now sold XLM to buy XTZ.” According to the last update (December 12, 2019, 11 PM EST) on the Bitwise website, XLM is still includes in the Bitwise 10 Index.

@VentureCoinist I don’t have a recommendation, but it’s interesting to see the staking narrative play out as bakers… https://t.co/iYn5vW3zZi — Matt Casto (@mcasto_)

Recent Tezos news:

Kraken is launching their new staking service on December 13 and is offering a 6% return staking XTZ.

is launching their new staking service on December 13 and is offering a 6% return staking XTZ. Hardware wallet developer Ledger has announced that is has begun staking support for XTZ via its Ledger Live app.

has announced that is has begun staking support for XTZ via its Ledger Live app. At the end of October, the Tezos Foundation announced it would be tokenizing about USD 25 million worth of a Manchester, UK, luxury property development in conjunction with tZERO ;

announced it would be tokenizing about USD 25 million worth of a Manchester, UK, luxury property development in conjunction with ; Coinbase has begun offering staking rewards to its Tezos customers in most American states;

has begun offering staking rewards to its Tezos customers in most American states; OKEx announced the XTZ staking service and started XTZ spot trading;

announced the XTZ staking service and started XTZ spot trading; Tezos Southeast Asia partnered with RF International Holdings in order to promote cooperation in exploring Tezos applications to encourage adoption;

in order to promote cooperation in exploring Tezos applications to encourage adoption; Additionally, Swiss primary stock exchange SIX listed a crypto exchange-traded product (ETP) tied to XTZ, issued by fintech company Amun AG .

listed a crypto exchange-traded product (ETP) tied to XTZ, issued by fintech company . The French Armies and Gendarmerie’s Information & Public Relations Center (SIRPA) announced that the Gendarmerie’s cybercrime division (C3N) “has been validating judicial expenses incurred during investigations and recording them on the Tezos blockchain” since September.

(SIRPA) announced that the (C3N) “has been validating judicial expenses incurred during investigations and recording them on the Tezos blockchain” since September. Bruno Le Maire, France’s Minister of the Economy and Finance, said recently that “the development of the blockchain ecosystem is a priority for the government,” while one of the startups that has caught his eye is Tezos.

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