What Tezos is
Tezos (XTZ) is a proof-of-stake Layer-1 blockchain, currently ranked 114th by market capitalization among the assets we track. Tezos is its own settlement layer. Smart contracts run on top of it, fees are paid in XTZ, and the security model rests on validators bonding the token rather than burning energy to mine it.
Tezos (XTZ) is a decentralized blockchain platform that enables smart contracts and decentralized applications while allowing users to participate in its governance through a formal voting process. Its self-amending protocol facilitates upgrades without the need for hard forks.
How consensus and the token economy connect
Staking ties the token's value to network security: more XTZ bonded means a costlier attack, and stakers are paid for taking that role. Unstaking queues and slashing parameters shape how liquid that capital really is.
Under the hood, XTZ secures its ledger with Liquid Proof of Stake, built on the LPOS algorithm.
Background & fundamentals
Tezos first went live in 2017, giving it roughly 9 years of on-chain price history to draw on. Tezos operates under a semi-centralized structure, which concentrates protocol decisions in an identifiable issuer or foundation. A documented core team of 14 contributors is listed publicly, a depth of disclosed staffing many long-tail tokens lack.
Its codebase is open-source, meaning the implementation can be audited rather than taken on trust. The project publishes a whitepaper documenting its original design, which is worth reading before sizing any position in XTZ. CoinPaprika classifies the project's development status as "Working product".
In sector terms it is most often filed under Platform, Smart Contracts, and Proof Of Stake.
Where Tezos sits in the market
Trading around $0.2024, Tezos carries a market capitalization of $214.44M. Around $10.98M changes hands across exchanges in a typical 24-hour window. That is a turnover of about 5.12% of the float — a healthy level of activity for an asset this size.
Tezos carries no fixed maximum supply; issuance follows a programmatic schedule rather than a hard cap. XTZ remains -98% beneath its all-time high of $12.19, the kind of gap that historically takes a full cycle or a fresh catalyst to close.
What the price history shows
The tape currently reads 24-hour -3.82%, 7-day -8.26%, 30-day -13.32%, 1-year -45.89%. Across roughly the last 365 days of daily candles, XTZ endured a peak-to-trough drawdown of about 72% before stabilizing.
Volatility profile
Recent action puts Tezos in the Moderate-volatility band — it shows the kind of price movement common in mid-cap crypto assets — meaningful but not unusual. Over the last 30 days the move totals -13.32%, a useful input for stop placement and position sizing.
How to evaluate Tezos
For an asset of this type, three lenses matter most:
- Real usage — active addresses, fees paid, and total value locked — does on-chain demand justify the valuation?
- Staking economics — the share of XTZ staked, the yield, and unlock/queue dynamics that govern liquid supply.
- Ecosystem depth — how many applications and how much liquidity have chosen Tezos over competing Layer-1s.
This page pulls live market data, on-chain stats where available, exchange-by-exchange volume, and our forecast model into one view so you can work through those questions in a single place. None of it is investment advice — it is a structured starting point for your own research.
