NEO, a Chinese blockchain platform, is opening up an office based in the United States. The office will be in Seattle and the company has already chosen John deVadoss, a former Microsoft executive, to head it.

The office is scheduled to open sometime in February. During the month, the company will also work on recruiting for the office, which may later lead to more expansion in the United States. According to the platform’s press release, it has also developed partnerships with several companies, including Microsoft.

NEO’s founder, Erik Zhang stated that he was attracted to Seattle as the city in which to open the first office because of its reputation as a technology giant. As he stated,

“Seattle has huge developer resources and a strong atmosphere of innovation, andd NEO has always placed great importance in technology development.”

Over the years, NEO has been recognized as the “Ethereum of China.” According to its platform, it “utilizes technology and digital identifies to digitize assets and automate the management of digital assets using smart contracts.”

The platform was founded in 2014, it launched in 2016, and it is currently working to develop NEO 3.0. The upgrade is to its blockchain, which is set to bring