Even a 30 percent crash has not deterred traders from buying Tezos (XTZ), a cryptocurrency that surpassed all its top rivals after staging a parabolic bull run in 2020.
The price of the tenth-largest blockchain asset was up 6.66 percent to $3.348 ahead of the European market open. The gains appeared as a part of wider altcoin recovery that saw other assets surge by some proportions. Tezos’ nevertheless remained one of the most profitable assets on an intraday basis, beaten only a thin-volumed Bitcoin SV.

Insider tip:
Do not sell your #tezos until the $9-$11 range.
This $XTZ pump will be massive.
-Warren B.
— Warren Buffett (XTZ fan) (@OracleOfAlts) February 9, 2020

The cryptocurrency’s upside moves also followed a choppy sideways action which, in turn, came after it established an all-time high towards $3.85 on February 11. Traders utilized the top to take out short-term profits, sending prices down to as low as $2.75. But the move failed to turn into a full-fledged pullback.
Cut to today, the XTZ-to-dollar exchange rate is still holding a huge part of its gains, supported by a decent volume across all the leading exchanges. At the same time, it is showing no signs of buyers’ exhaustion.
Leverage Up
The Tezos’ upside momentum sustains mainly because of a string of optimistic market developments. Only recently, Hong Kong crypto exchange BitFinex announced that it is increasing leverages on its XTZ-enabled instruments. The firm said its traders could now trade XTZ/USD and XTZ/BTC pairs on a maximum leverage of 3.3x.
Earlier, the maximum leverage available was 2x.

We have updated margin trading on @Tezos!
From today, #Tezos pairs (XTZ/USD), (XTZ/BTC) can be traded with a lower initial equity of 30% and a higher maximum leverage of 3.3x. https://t.co/Tye562u7ju
— Bitfinex (@bitfinex) February 17, 2020

Bitfinex’s CTO Paolo Ardoino confirmed that they decided to raise the risk profile of Tezos pairs in response to growing market demand.
“[Tezos] is becoming a well established and liquid market on Bitfinex,” he said. [Thus, it is] time to switch gears and allow increased leverage to 3.3x.”
The announcement showed Tezos’ growth as a standalone token, as well as a proof-of-stake blockchain project. The cryptocurrency earlier gained recognition after top crypto exchanges, including Binance and Coinbase, decided to offer XTZ staking services on their platforms. The announcement had also sent the altcoin’s prices higher.
Now with BitFinex, traders with higher risk appetite could speculate on XTZ trades for exponential yields. Increasing leverage is likely to boost the cryptocurrency’s demand.
Trading Tezos
So it appears, XTZ is consolidating sideways in a range defined by $3.496 as interim resistance and $2.849 as interim support. The crypto is more likely to fluctuate between the two levels: with a bounce from support creating a long opportunity towards the resistance and a pullback from the resistance offering a similar short opportunity towards the support.
Tezos (XTZ) trending sideways | Source: TradingView.com, Coinbase
A break above $3.496, on the other hand, could have traders extend their upside target towards the all-time high, i.e. $3.85. Similarly, crashing below $2.849 could have bears treat $2.45 as their primary downside target.