Hey guys! It has been a while so I thought I should post a new 2020 price prediction for you. This one is on Tezos as it has some very promising developments in the pipeline.

Tezos witnessed a pretty fruitful year during 2019 with the cryptocurrency increasing by a total of 188% - as it opened the year at a price of $0.46 and went on to close the year at a price of $1.35. Although this may not seem like a great performance to many cryptocurrency investors, the fact that Tezos is now back on the move after years of downward pressure is a very promising sign for the coin!

The price increase started during the first few months of 2019 as it surged from $0.40 to $1.60 with very low volume. During the 2019 summer, the cryptocurrency went on to drop back beneath $1.00 as the entire cryptocurrency market slumped. The real magic came for Tezos during the 2019 winter as the volume increased dramatically, causing the coin to rise back above the $1.00 level to re-test the 2019 high of $1.73.

Tezos holders can now be excited for the prospects of their investment in 2020 as the ecosystem is starting to thrive once again. The controversial lawsuits that dampened the sentiment for Tezos have now long passed and the community is looking forward to a strong year of development during 2020. With features such as the upcoming NYX standard for STO's, Non-Fungible tokens, privacy improvements, DeFi activity, and a fresh new stable coin - there is a lot on the decentralized agenda to look forward to.

For the reasons stated above, and more discussed below, I believe that XTZ has the potential to surge by a total of 235% in 2020 to reach my target price of $5.00 at some point during the year. 

In this article, I’ll firstly cover a range of topics that I believe will influence XTZ in reaching my $5.00 target during 2020 and then analyze XTZ on the daily chart to highlight some areas of resistance on the way toward the target.

What Is Tezos?

Tezos was founded in 2014 by ex-Morgan Stanley analyst Arthur Breitman, along with his wife, Kathleen, and was eventually released during 2017. 

Dubbed as “The self-amending cryptographic ledger” due to its on-chain self-governing procedure, it allows for developers to code their own protocol upgrade proposals and allows the community to vote on whether they should be tested and implemented. This made it the first-ever self-developing blockchain platform on the market. The developers are incentivized to do this as they can attach an invoice to their upgrade proposal which will be paid by the community if it is implemented. Furthermore, any developmental upgrades can easily be implemented without the need for a hard fork of the blockchain, something that is required with traditional blockchains such as EOS or Ethereum. 

This type of self-governing system creates a condition where the community is unlikely to be split on decisions that typically lead to hard-forks within the network which usually results in disruption of the economic growth of the ecosystem. 

To understand how the self-governing process is beneficial to a project like Tezos, take a look at this great overview.

Tezos underwent some very tricky roadblocks during its early stages as it suffered some class-action lawsuits regarding why it took so long to release the project to the public. Luckily, they are no longer going through their legal issues regarding its ICO and their class-action lawsuits are now settled. This is extremely positive as the team and community can now start to look ahead and focus on the actual project without the lawsuit lingering.

Find Out More About Tezos and the Controversy here

Coinbase Announces Baking

One of the major developmental partnerships for Tezos came from Coinbase as they announced support for Tezos staking for their institutional clientele. This reinstates some well-needed confidence within their project as a large institution like Coinbase does not make partnership decisions easily. 

Tezos Social Dominance Increasing

Interestingly, the Social Dominance statistic, provided by Santiment, shows both social volume and dominance surging over the past few months as the Tezos buzz starts to make the rounds again. Social Dominance measures the % share of coins mentions on social media against a pool of the top 50 talked about projects. 

From the chart below, we can see that the Social Dominance for Tezos reached over 5% which indicates that, compared to the top 50 discussed coins, Tezos dominated 5% of the overall chatter - on its own! Additionally, the actual social volume, number of Tweets and mentions, etc., have also been increasing after a year of flatlining during early 2019.

NYX Standard - A New Standard For STO’s

The NYX Standard might actually be the most exciting thing to happen to Tezos in its lifetime. 

Typically, it is difficult for companies to launch their own ERC20 tokens as they are not compliant with SEC regulations because they have no restrictions on transfers and can be traded by anybody in the world - something which is unacceptable for regulators. Tezos is in the midst of changing all of this with its new NYX standard which is an advanced set of smart contracts that make it simple for STO’s (Securit Token Offerings) to launch on the Tezos platform. The NYX standard is developed to fully cater to all issuers, buyers, and regulators of financial instruments - making them highly auditable and compliant with financial authorities regulation. 

An STO is a form of asset that is a tokenized real-world asset such as bonds and real estate. Tokenizing assets like this creates a fluid system that allows for reduced transaction costs, cross-border trading, automation, and regulation. Furthermore, tokenizing something such as real estate on the blockchain introduces an investment opportunity for people to invest in part of a real estate asset rather than buying the entire thing!

The NYX standard consists of 4 smart contracts that will allow securities to automatically secure and execute over 160 predefined business rules leading to reduced transaction costs and administration errors. The smart contracts will all be able to communicate with each other and will allow for compliance issues such as AML, time-restricted KYC, on-chain company registration, the maximum number of shareholders, etc. 

The most important thing about the NYX standard is that it will be extremely user-friendly. After abiding by legal compliance in their specific country which they have to set up themselves, STO’s simply will have to fill out a form to get things started on the Tezos blockchain. 

This is extremely exciting for all Tezos holders as this could give birth to an entirely new wave of STO’s (similar to the ICO bubble) and this will benefit Tezos specifically. Furthermore, if the NYX standard is adopted by regulators around the world, this will further boost the interest of Tezos.

Many firms have already stated that they will issue digital securities on the Tezos blockchain and these include Elevated Returns, BTG Pactual, Fundament Group, and Alliance Investments.

Read more about the NYX standard here.

USDtz Stable Coin

Tezos are planning on releasing their own stablecoin, USDtz, at some point during 2020 on its own blockchain and will be pegged to the US Dollar. This will be an exciting development as it will provide liquidity to the Tezos market which will certainly help in the DeFi future that Tezos is planning. Furthermore, there will be no stability fees for USDtz making it a great option to use for trading and exchanging. 

The stablecoin will be slightly different from traditional stablecoins as it will be backed by fiat and XTZ. In fact, it will be over-collateralized by a ratio of 4:1, split between fiat and XTZ, which means that there will be more assets backing USDtz than the amount of USDtz in circulation.

To learn more about the upcoming Tezos stablecoin, take a look at this article

Along with these exciting features, Tezos is also planning on introducing Non-Fungible Tokens, bringing unique collectible items to the blockchain. Furthermore, they are working together with Nomadic Labs to improve the privacy for Tezos by integrating Sapling which will introduce shielded transactions to the blockchain.

Tezos (XTZ) Price Analysis

LONG TERM - WEEKLY CHART

What Has Been Going On?

Taking a look at the weekly chart above, we can clearly see that Tezos rebounded from the support at $0.35 during early 2019. This rebound saw the cryptocurrency rising as high as $1.83 during April 2019, establishing the high for the year. This was just slightly above the resistance provided by a long term bearish .236 Fibonacci Retracement level at $1.67.

After establishing the 2019 high, Tezos went on to trade sideways for the rest of the year as it moved in a period of consolidation between $1.83 and $0.84. Tezos still continues to trade within this sideways trading range and must break above the upper boundary before we can trend toward the 2020 price target. 

Are We Bullish Or Bearish (as of January 2019)?

As of January 2019, we are currently trading within a neutral trend as we are range-bound. For the cryptocurrency to turn bullish, we must see it rising and breaking above the upper boundary of the range at $1.83.

A break beneath the lower boundary at $0.84 would see this market turning bearish. 

Where Is The Resistance On The Way Up TO $5.00?

The first level of resistance lies at $1.67 which is provided by a long term bearish .236 Fibonacci Retracement level - measured from the May 2018 high to the December 2018 low. This is immediately followed by resistance at the upper boundary of the current trading range at $1.83.

If the bulls can continue to bring Tezos above $2.00, resistance lies at $2.13 and $2.28 which is provided by the short term 1.272 and 1.414 Fibonacci Extension levels, respectively. This is then followed with resistance at $2.48 (bearish .382 Fibonacci Retracement level). Above $3.00, resistance is then located at $3.14 (bearish .5 Fib Retracement), $3.80 (bearish .618 Fib Retracement), and $4.00. 

Before being able to make an attempt at the 2020 target of $5.00, the buyers will need to contest resistance at $4.50 and $4.73 (bearish .786 Fibonacci Retracement). If they can clear these levels of resistance they will be free to make an attempt at the 2020 price target.

Conclusion

Tezos most certainly has the potential to climb by a total of 235% in 2020 to reach the target of $5.00 by the end of the year. Now that the controversial legal disputes are settled, the team and community can focus on the future as they look to create a new standard for STO’s to enter the market in a regulatory compliant fashion. Furthermore, if regulators start to accept the NYX standard as a default standard, this will do wonders for Tezos and should help it climb further toward the target.

Before being able to reach $5.00, Tezos must overcome strong resistance at $1.85 and $2.00. Above this, resistance lies at $2.48, $3.14, $3.80, and $4.00. If the bulls can continue to climb above the resistance at $4.73, they will be free to make an attempt at the $5.00 target.