Tezos (XTZ) has officially launched their main network, putting an end to the ongoing beta phase. Contrary to what one might expect, the project saw $170 million erased from its market capitalization.
“Beta Period Concluded”
It’s safe to say that the road in front of the Tezos Foundation was a fairly bumpy one. The project’s ICO raised $232 million and confirmed the beta release in May, 2018.
Shortly after that, Bitcoinist reported on some of the hurdles the project was facing along the way, including disagreements among senior management, consumer lawsuits over delays, as well as problems related to lost passwords.
Nevertheless, the official announcement of the mainnet launch holds that the current state of the network is operating efficiently and smoothly. In an official statement, the Tezos Foundation announced that their main network is now live:
…we now consider the beta period concluded, and while active development still continues, we are pleased to regard the Tezos network as the mainnet.
Almost immediately after the news broke out Bitfinex announced that trading for XTZ 00 will be available against the USD and BTC on their platform.
Trading has been enabled for Tezos (XTZ) against USD & BTC. @tezos https://t.co/jFbmSjNpXF pic.twitter.com/wI9z4FlWpc
— Bitfinex (@bitfinex) September 17, 2018
Price Reacts…Negatively
What was supposed to be a celebratory moment for the project and its investors quickly went downhill, as the price collapsed by almost 20 percent, erasing $170 million from its total market cap a little less than an hour after the announcement. This amounts to almost as much as the Tezos Foundation managed to raise in its July 2017 ICO.
Controversially, the drop also erased a lot of the gains XTZ managed to accumulate in anticipation of its mainnet launch.
What do you think of Tezos’ mainnet launch? Don’t hesitate to let us know in the comments below!
Images courtesy of Shutterstock, coinmarketcap.com, twitter.com
