NEO, the eighth largest cryptocurrency in market capitalization, surged nearly 30% in the last 24 hours to a $33.78 price and a market capitalization of $1.689 billion, according to coinnmarketcap.com.

The $33.78 price marks a near doubling in the last two weeks, as the price had fallen to $17.38 on Sept. 14 from an all-time high of $48.01 on Aug. 14.

The advance enabled NEO to leap over Ethereum Classic to secure the 10th spot in the market cap rankings.

Positive News Drives Surge

The NEO price surged on Monday after Dutch financial news outlet Het Financieele Dagblad published an interview with NEO founder Da Hongfei. He speculated that a future collaboration between NEO and the Chinese government is a possibility.

The fact that the government contacted Da prior to the official crackdown indicated that regulators are not planning to widen the net around Chinese cryptocurrency projects like NEO – at least not in the near-term.

Another factor influencing the rally is bitcoin exchange Bitfinex’s recent decision to add NEO to its platform. The NEO price surged 50% earlier this month following its listing on bitcoin exchange Bitfinex.

NEO can now be swapped with USD, BTC and ETH. This will provide increased liquidity for NEO and gives the token its first exposure to a major USD market (excluding the USD-pegged Tether). This trading pair diversification will mitigate the impact that NEO/CNY pairs have on the token’s global average price.

Surge Began In June

NEO began its growth in mid-June after hovering in under $1 territory since its inception in September of 2016.

The only other crypto in the top 10 to post a double-digit gain today was number three ranked Ripple, which jumped 11.2%, yielding a $7.792 billion market capitalization.

NEO led all major cryptocurrencies in the last 24 hours. The first cryptocurrency to post a larger gain was 47th place Gnossis, which has a $134.556 million market capitalization, which posted a 42% gain.

The first crypto to post a loss in the last 24 hours was Lisk, number 14, which shed 1.27%.

Featured image from Shutterstock.