A Swiss foundation set up to launch Tezos, a cryptocurrency project, is getting prominent support from a digital currency hedge fund pioneer.

The Zug-based Tezos Foundation on Tuesday appointed Olaf Carlson-Wee as a new board member, along with several other appointments which take the entity from three to seven members, effective immediately. Carlson-Wee is the founder of $250 million hedge fund Polychain Capital, a crypto hedge fund with prominent Silicon Valley backing.

The other appointees – Pascal Cléré, Marylène Micheloud, and Hubertus Thonhauser – are all members of a parallel foundation set up as a safety net last month, after a bitter feud broke out between Tezos' original foundation and the technology's owners, Arthur and Kathleen Breitman.

The new recruits mean the thousands of developers, investors, and other supporters which form the so-called Tezos community have cemented their hold on the foundation, following the exit of embattled head Johann Gevers last week. This in turn paves the way for Tezos to launch its «Tezzie» coin – which has been held up for months due to the infighting – in coming weeks.

«Tezzie» Launch?

The foundation didn't mention a timeline for the launch in its statement. Last week, Kathleen Breitman hinted at a start in several weeks, in comments that finews.com couldn't independently verify. Last week, she told «The Wall Street Journal» that Tezos doesn't yet have a launch date.

Carlson-Wee was suggested for the original Tezos board, but apparently rejected by Gevers as being too close to the Breitmans. Micheloud is a retired Swiss computer scientist, Cléré is an executive at Alstom's digital unit, and Thonhauser is a crypto investor and venture capitalist.