NEO, like many leading cryptocurrencies, enjoyed its breakout year in 2017. Its percentage value rose by thousands and became one of the world’s biggest cryptos in terms of market capitalisation. It hit a peak of $187.41 on January 15, 2018, according to global trading and investing platform eToro. Why is it so popular?

To start with, NEO is the first Chinese cryptocurrency to hit the mainstream. Created by Chinese company Onchain, it was originally launched in 2014 as AntShares before rebranding in 2017. NEO, similar to Ethereum – the second largest cryptocurrency by market capitalisation – was developed to enable the creation of digital assets, smart contracts, and applications on its blockchain, and not simply as a crypto.

However, NEO works differently from Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies in many ways. Most significantly, NEO is not decentralised, and therefore its blockchain cannot be forked. Its creator, Da Hongfei, built NEO to comply with Chinese regulations and coded it in such a way that allows the entire network to be changed or upgraded quickly, and without user consensus.

Users can issue and trade assets on the NEO platform, which distributes tokens to prove ownership of an asset, rather than the asset itself. This is to make it more straightforward to transfer shares, equity, and assets.

Mr. Da has grand plans for NEO. He believes it can power a new ‘smart economy’, where assets are traded in a public ledger and through smart contracts. To quote the organisation’s website: “NEO is a non-profit, community-based blockchain project that utilises blockchain technology and digital identity to digitise assets, to automate the management of digital assets using smart contracts, and to realise a ‘smart economy’ with a distributed network.”

Because NEO is decentralised and token cannot be divided – the smallest unit of the currency is one NEO – it has impressive stability and users can expect to experience less transaction latency when compared with other top cryptos. The platform is able to process up to 10,000 transactions per second, and it supports a wide variety of common programming languages, including Javascript and C++.

“We want to be the place people go to when they want to do serious and reliable transactions,” NEO creator Mr. Da told Bloomberg in January 2018. Indeed, NEO’s robust infrastructure makes it appealing to developers and investors alike. With a market capitalisation in the billions, it is a top-10 crypto and continues to attract an impressive number of partners, in China and beyond.

Additionally, NEO’s supply has been limited to 100 million tokens. Half were sold to early investors, and the remaining 50 million NEO have been locked into a smart contract.

By investing in NEO, traders will expand and balance their cryptocurrency portfolio – as it is a platform that can behave differently in the market compared to other major cryptos. It will also show a belief in the real-world application of blockchain technology, which many consider to be the most exciting innovation spawned from Bitcoin, the original cryptocurrency.

Further, it is important to note that NEO has been designed to work with – not against – Chinese regulations. Since China is one of the countries most heavily regulating cryptos – and has cracked down on Bitcoin in the past – NEO might be a good hedging option for Bitcoin traders.

eToro, which has over nine million users, specialises in cryptocurrencies, and offers many top cryptos – including NEO – to buy outright or trade.

Its motto is: “Cryptos Needn’t Be Cryptic.” And the eToro team has produced this handy video history of Ethereum to help inform investors:

Pros and cons of trading on eToro

Pros

Straightforward, user-friendly, trustworthy and experienced platform

Instant execution of trades, thereby locking in a price

Ability to use CopyTrader and other innovative tools

Huge cryptocurrency community that shares knowledge and helps each other

Fast execution

Regulated company

Cons

Only nine cryptocurrencies offered by the platform, currently

Users are unable to withdraw the cryptocurrencies directly

Users’ cryptocurrencies are held by eToro

Trading NEO is straightforward on eToro

Step 1: Go to www.etoro.com and press ‘Join Now’ to register

Step 2: Once you have signed up, search for NEO

Step 3: Click on NEO and press ‘Trade’

Step 4: Choose either the amount or units to trade (by toggling the icon in the right-hand side) and press ‘Deposit Now’ to open a trade

Want to learn more about trading NEO and other cryptos? Visit www.eToro.com now, and join the online global community.

All trading involves risk. Only risk capital you’re prepared to lose. Past performance is not an indication of future results.