The NEO price surged 50% on Thursday following its listing on bitcoin exchange Bitfinex. NEO is now trading above $30, despite the fact that the China ICO ban remains in full force and the startup has begun issuing refunds to ICO contributors.
NEO Price Surges 50%
On Monday, the People’s Bank of China (PBoC) ruled that initial coin offerings (ICO) are illegal and that startups must refund all ICO investments to contributors. This ruling brought temporary devastation to the crypto markets, but it particularly affected NEO, an open-source blockchain startup that has been dubbed the “Chinese Ethereum.” Between September 2 and September 4, the NEO price plunged from $34 to $19–a decline of nearly 50%. This crash was made more significant by the fact that the NEO price was already in decline, having peaked at an all-time high of $50 in mid-August.
Today, the NEO price began to recover to its pre-ban levels. The advance was sudden; in just 8 hours, NEO increased by nearly 50%, rising from about $20 to a high of $34. This restored NEO’s market cap to about $1.7 billion, putting it within striking distance of 10th-place ethereum classic.
