Not to think about HODL: the investors of Tezos sold their tokens as soon as they could

After almost a year waiting to finally get their tokens, the first thing many investors of Tezos did was get rid of them.

That seems to be the case, according to the available market data, which points to a wave of sales as soon as the beta version of the network began to operate.

XTZ prices fell 34% on Monday to US $ 2.00, according to CoinMarketCap. Starting on Monday above US $ 4, the price fell 74% to a low of US $ 1.10 on Friday, before cutting losses to reach approximately US $ 1.76 shortly thereafter.

The massive sale coincided with the first listing of Tokens Tezos in an exchange, Gate.io, which means that investors rushed to take advantage of access to liquidity.

This early and steep decline seems to mark a difficult first week for a project that raised US $ 232 million in July 2017, in an initial offer of currencies like no other. From the beginning, Tezos drew attention for his creative solutions to the problems of governance in the blockchain networks, but he has also made headlines for his internal power struggles.

The specialized portal CoinDesk obtained the opinion of investors, observers and participants of the network, who agreed that the settlement of chips should be attributed to the long wait for liquidity.

Tim Draper, an investor who describes himself as a "long-term hodler" of XTZ, stated :

"Probably there was some suppressed supply, since (Tezos) took longer than expected for the tokens to be launched. Some people probably needed some cash. "

While Gate.io provided liquidity to the token holders, it also served as a retaining wall by offering relatively low trading volumes, which allowed investors to sell without causing a further fall in the price of XTZ.

Others, such as Mariano Gadea, head of the Tezos delegation service, CeiboXTZ, were optimistic despite the drop. Gadea explained that the market was undergoing an "adjustment" and expressed confidence that the market limit of XTZ (US $ 900 million on Friday, July 6) would soon rival that of Ethereum (US $ 47 billion).

"I think there's no such thing as a price drop," he told CoinDesk in an email.

Regarding the delay of Tezos, Gadea, coinciding with Tim Draper, commented :

"It took more than expected ... to have the network live because of the publicly known problems that the foundation went through. This delay caused some frustration in those investors who decided to claim their chips and change them quickly. "

The most anxious expressed concern about the appearance of the token in lists of other exchanges, based on the fact that the figuration of XTZ in big bags such as Binance would attract buyers to the Tezos market and bolster the price.

A common theme was the blame that the Tezos Foundation, the Swiss non-profit organization that directed the ICO and launched the betanet, is supposedly deserving of not including XTZ in more exchanges lists before releasing the network live.

A spokesperson for the foundation, in an email to CoinDesk, wrote: "no entity owns, manages or controls Tezos," citing a statement made in June. He added that "exchanges that wish to include the XTZ token are free to do so."

It is also possible that the steep drops in prices characterize the launches of several well-publicized ICO projects, now that the "bulls" have subsided and the market passes through a, hopefully short, crypto-winter.

Alok Vasudev, an angel investor who is not involved in Tezos, but knows the project, said: "I think early volatility will be the norm as these high-profile projects come to market." He added: "Many people invested waiting for much shorter liquidity times. I would expect massive sales during the launch and after the locks expire on many projects. "