Binance.US to Open Tezos (XTZ) Trading Amid Crypto Market Fallout

Binance.US, the United States arm of the Binance cryptocurrency exchange, is launching trading of Tezos (XTZ) on Monday, March 16th. According to a post on Binance US's blog, trading for XTZ/USD and XTZ/BUSD will open on Monday, March 16th, at 9.00 am EST.

Binance.US began accepting deposits of XTZ on Sunday, March 15th. However, withdrawals will not be enabled until trading is live. Binance.US also says that to deposit or exchange USD for XTZ, users are required to pass fiat verification in addition to basic and advanced identity verification on the platform.

https://t.co/AZwoBOy3iq Will List @tezos $XTZhttps://t.co/kHjyP97gdi pic.twitter.com/Ji2NueLLPG

— Binance.US 🇺🇸 (@BinanceUS) March 15, 2020

At press time, Tezos was worth $1.31 per token, after having fallen more than 18 percent in the last 24 hours, and more than 50% since its all-time high of roughly $3.90 in February of this year. Tezos also held the spot as the tenth-largest cryptocurrency by market cap.

Tezos' recovery put on the rocks as crypto markets falter

Tezos was originally conceived in 2014 by Arthur and Kathleen Breitman, who went on to found the Tezos Foundation, which was incorporated as a nonprofit in Switzerland. The Tezos ICO, which was held in July of 2017, was record-breakingly successful, bringing in a whopping $232 million.

Tezos' operations were structured so that the Tezos Foundation would be able to hold the majority of Tezos' funds and pay Dynamic Ledger Solutions, a US-based firm that handled Tezos' operations. The structure was intended to allow Tezos to avoid paying taxes, but CoinTelegraph has reported that this wasn't effective.

The Foundation ran into trouble in 2018, when Johann Gevers, the former head of the Tezos Foundation, became embroiled in a highly-publicized spat with the Breitmans. The dispute temporarily set the project off its course and its timeline and caused the firm to be hit with several class-action lawsuits.

However, by 2019, the project showed signs of recovery--garnering support by high-profile investors such as Tim Draper and increased interest in its staking component. Cointelegraph also reported that a number of investors are interested in projects that are either already developing on top of Tezos' protocol, or will soon be developed on the protocol.

Demand for Tezos exchange staking services has accelerated recently

Coinbase, Kraken, and Binance customers are now delegating nearly 100 million $xtz to the exchanges - currently valued around $320 million

Check out @TezosBakingBad for more great data https://t.co/0XFMIdzJdo pic.twitter.com/IGucagVLRN

— Tezos Atlanta (@tezosatl) February 12, 2020

In particular, there is interest in Tezos as a platform for Security Token Security Token Security tokens are cryptocurrency tokens that represent a contract into an underlying security, which could include stocks, funds, bonds, and real estate investment trusts (REITs.) Security tokens can also be used as a method of fundraising. A security token offering (STO) is similar in nature to an initial public offering (IPO), however involves tokenized digital securities, known as security tokens. These are then sold in cryptocurrency exchanges. Tokens can be used to trade real financial assets such as equities and fixed income, and use a blockchain virtual ledger system to store and validate token transactions.In a regulatory sense, tokens are classified as securities and are more susceptible to oversight. This makes them more secure relative to other alternatives such as initial coin offerings (ICOs), which have resulted in countless cases of fraud.Many STO can also be held on regulated stock exchanges that can be characterized as tokenized IPO. These offerings have benefits, including the potential to deliver significant efficiencies and cost savings.Where Are STOs Legal?STOs are regulated and legalized in several countries where ICOs have not. This makes them the preferred method of fundraising and are fully regulated in following jurisdictions: European Union, Germany, United Kingdom, Switzerland, United States, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Israel, Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong.In particular, STOs are placed under securities legislation. Even in the aforementioned jurisdictions however, security tokens still require a connection to a registered company with real assets being sold.There is some degree of controversy surrounding security tokens, mainly as a means of their classification. There exists a debate surrounding security tokens as to their legal differentiation of whether they can be characterized as a utility instead of a security. Traditionally, a passive financial return is expected from the investment, thus it is classified as a security. Security tokens are cryptocurrency tokens that represent a contract into an underlying security, which could include stocks, funds, bonds, and real estate investment trusts (REITs.) Security tokens can also be used as a method of fundraising. A security token offering (STO) is similar in nature to an initial public offering (IPO), however involves tokenized digital securities, known as security tokens. These are then sold in cryptocurrency exchanges. Tokens can be used to trade real financial assets such as equities and fixed income, and use a blockchain virtual ledger system to store and validate token transactions.In a regulatory sense, tokens are classified as securities and are more susceptible to oversight. This makes them more secure relative to other alternatives such as initial coin offerings (ICOs), which have resulted in countless cases of fraud.Many STO can also be held on regulated stock exchanges that can be characterized as tokenized IPO. These offerings have benefits, including the potential to deliver significant efficiencies and cost savings.Where Are STOs Legal?STOs are regulated and legalized in several countries where ICOs have not. This makes them the preferred method of fundraising and are fully regulated in following jurisdictions: European Union, Germany, United Kingdom, Switzerland, United States, Canada, Brazil, Australia, Israel, Singapore, Japan, and Hong Kong.In particular, STOs are placed under securities legislation. Even in the aforementioned jurisdictions however, security tokens still require a connection to a registered company with real assets being sold.There is some degree of controversy surrounding security tokens, mainly as a means of their classification. There exists a debate surrounding security tokens as to their legal differentiation of whether they can be characterized as a utility instead of a security. Traditionally, a passive financial return is expected from the investment, thus it is classified as a security. Read this Term Offerings, or STOs. Recently, Tezos Commons community member and ReactCrypto journalist Will McKenzie posted a study claiming that Tezos will outperform Ethereum Ethereum Ethereum is an open source, blockchain-based distributed computing platform and operating system featuring smart contract functionality. Created in 2014, Ethereum now stands as the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap at the time of writing.As a decentralized cryptocurrency network and software platform, Ethereum represents the most prominent altcoin. Ethereum also enables the creation Distributed Applications, or dapps. Understanding EthereumEthereum boasts its own programming language, called Turing Complete, which is used to build the dapps. Dapps run on a peer-to-peer (P2P0 network of virtual machines. These can be just about anything and are optimized to run on Smart Contracts. Smart Contracts are pieces of code that execute a predetermined set of actions once a certain set of criteria are met. The Ethereum network’s native currency is called Ether, or ETH. ETH tokens can be used to pay for things inside of dapps or to receive payouts from smart contracts. They can also be traded off of the Ethereum network inside of cryptocurrency exchanges or OTC trading platforms. For most of its lifetime, Ethereum has remained as the second-largest and most popular cryptocurrency in terms of its market cap. It was briefly outpaced by Bitcoin Cash near the end of 2017.Ethereum’s origin dates back to late 2013 when crypto researcher and programmer Vitalik Buterin proposed its utility.Its development was subsequently funded by an online crowdsale that took place in the middle of 2014 before going live in July 2015. At its inception, Ethereum went live with 72 million coins minted, accounting for approximately 65 percent of its total circulating supply as of May 2020.Like other cryptos, Ethereum has had a checkered past, resulting in splits. Back in 2016, an exploited vulnerability in The DAO project's smart contract software caused the theft of $50 million worth of ether.As a result, Ethereum was split into two separate blockchains – a newer and separate version became known as Ethereum (ETH), while the original chain continued to be known as Ethereum Classic (ETC). Ethereum is an open source, blockchain-based distributed computing platform and operating system featuring smart contract functionality. Created in 2014, Ethereum now stands as the second largest cryptocurrency by market cap at the time of writing.As a decentralized cryptocurrency network and software platform, Ethereum represents the most prominent altcoin. Ethereum also enables the creation Distributed Applications, or dapps. Understanding EthereumEthereum boasts its own programming language, called Turing Complete, which is used to build the dapps. Dapps run on a peer-to-peer (P2P0 network of virtual machines. These can be just about anything and are optimized to run on Smart Contracts. Smart Contracts are pieces of code that execute a predetermined set of actions once a certain set of criteria are met. The Ethereum network’s native currency is called Ether, or ETH. ETH tokens can be used to pay for things inside of dapps or to receive payouts from smart contracts. They can also be traded off of the Ethereum network inside of cryptocurrency exchanges or OTC trading platforms. For most of its lifetime, Ethereum has remained as the second-largest and most popular cryptocurrency in terms of its market cap. It was briefly outpaced by Bitcoin Cash near the end of 2017.Ethereum’s origin dates back to late 2013 when crypto researcher and programmer Vitalik Buterin proposed its utility.Its development was subsequently funded by an online crowdsale that took place in the middle of 2014 before going live in July 2015. At its inception, Ethereum went live with 72 million coins minted, accounting for approximately 65 percent of its total circulating supply as of May 2020.Like other cryptos, Ethereum has had a checkered past, resulting in splits. Back in 2016, an exploited vulnerability in The DAO project's smart contract software caused the theft of $50 million worth of ether.As a result, Ethereum was split into two separate blockchains – a newer and separate version became known as Ethereum (ETH), while the original chain continued to be known as Ethereum Classic (ETC). Read this Term in terms of STOs. He cited, Mason Borda, the CEO of TokenSoft, who told McKenzie that within a year, 25%–35% of all STO issuances through TokenSoft would be on Tezos.

However, Tezos seems to have lost some of its gains as crypto markets continue to react negatively to the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.