NEM has been labelled as the next big cryptocurrency, much like Ripple was last year, after it rose by 31,000% in 2017.Cryptocurrencies had quite a journey last year. Whilst there were definitely some lows, the majority of predictions that were made came true. One that was particularly obvious though was NEM. This lesser known cryptocurrency jumped in value by 475% in just one month alone. It has closely followed Ripple with regards to the price, but despite this, is still very much the lesser known out of the two of them. This could all change though, as despite Ripple being the second most highly valued cryptocurrency in the world, NEM actually offers a lot more in the way of real-world applicability. NEM differs to Ripple, and boasts a fully-fledged platform for businesses to conduct all forms of decentralised digital transactions quickly and securely. In actual fact, NEM is closer to Ethereum; however; NEM goes one step further and has tweaked the Ethereum technology, to create a much secure and faster alternative.There are many reasons as to why NEM has skyrocketed in value. The team behind the cryptocurrency has been working on international exposure, but they have placed a lot of focus on smaller countries where cryptocurrencies are still an alien topic. So, because of this, they have developed the best blockchain based solution for small businesses and enterprises. But the increased popularity has come from South Korea . They have teamed up with a major investor, and are now trading on one of the country’s biggest crypto exchanges, OKEx, which brought in a lot of new investors and buyers. They are currently working on its next-generation blockchain solution, which could push the value past $2.00 in 2018.