A few coins have had the luxury of enjoying the massive support and prize growths as NEO (NEO) over the last few weeks.

The build-up to the Tokyo meet-up and the mega start of the European tour in Amsterdam had seen prices rise to about $70.33 by April 15, 2018, its momentum helped by the twin events. However, now that the two events are getting behind us, the expectation is that the prices will tail off and retrace to within the 60 level.

Although the coin will find it a bit tough to maintain the uptrend, the long-term picture should remain brighter due to several factors that are coming into play.

At the moment, NEO trades at $64.94 against the USD, representing a 24-hour change of -6.41% and a 7-day movement of +25.98%. With a market cap of $4.22bilion, the cryptocurrency is ranked 10th on Coinmarketcap. Though a slide could be on, the coin’s future outlook suggests the coin could move up the ladder in due course.

What then could drive interest in the coin and maintain its price upsurge?

The big question we should be focusing on here is whether NEO could be a good coin for hodling in 2018 and possibly beyond. To come to that conclusion, we should look at what makes the coin and its platform attractive to investors, potential partners, and developers.

As we already know, NEO has been a buzz word in cryptocurrency circles for quite some time now. It started towards the end of Q1 and gathering speed in the last two weeks. So, what should we look forward to in 2018?

The incentive of NEO/GAS distribution

Q2 began with South Korea’s Upbit announcing that they would begin distributing GAS to holders of NEO in early May. This bit of news should see interest in NEO coins increase as the incentive to hodl becomes apparent.

GAS is an essential component that works similarly to what ether does on Ethereum. It helps power tokens and holding it allows users to transact on the blockchain. Conveniently, a user will be able to use the “profits” while watching an expected price growth for the next several months and possibly years.

To get GAS, a user simply has to have NEO when the exchange snapshot is done. This will be undertaken every Friday at 21:00-22:00 hours Korean time. The total amount of GAS given to you will depend on the number of tokens you hold.

For a simplified approach, the cumulative amount of GAS collected will be multiplied by a figure derived from dividing your NEO with that held by Upbit. In short, the more an investor holds, the more will be distributed to them.

The NEO platform

The biggest pull the crypto has is its potential as a platform for dApps and tokens. Already the platform is boosted by the performance of Ontology, one of its pioneer NEP5 tokens.

Now there’s a host of others in the pipeline, highlighted by the Asura project. ASA, Asura’s native token will be a NEP5-token that will hold its ICO in May. It promises to be an interesting project, already garnering attention due to its upcoming airdrop.

The Asura white listing opens on 22nd April 2018 and the airdrop will be carried out within 10 days of the token sale concluding.

Prior to the European tour commencing, NEO had promised that six new projects would be unveiled. Well, one of them is Victor, a shopping platform that will allow shoppers a range of services. The decentralized framework will let shoppers take control of their data, securing it and monetizing it.

They can then share it with online brands to further improve the shopping experience. To incentivize the platform, users have an opportunity to earn free tokens and redeem them in various ways. There’s also a referral bonus for all users.

NEX also promises to be an exciting project that could benefit the NEO platform going forward. The buzz surrounding NEX revolves around the potential influence it could have on the global banking sector.

Its innovative blockchain code could link several banks to other blockchain solutions. The token is expected to hold its crowd sale on April 28, 2018. These are some of the projects that could see NEO prices spike in coming days.

Even though prices may break lower in the short-term, NEO (NEO) is a strong platform, with a solid support base in Asia. Its value should, therefore, see an upside in 2018 and beyond if the platform maintains a steady growth.