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Crypto markets move ***fast*** and while regular stocks usually don't change more than a few percentage points, a 50% increase or even a 100% increase within a few days can be seen quite often in the crypto world. But when one coin rises **200% in one week**, climbing the cryptocurrency market cap ranking from the top 20 to the ***8th spot***, something major is going on! If you are following the events in the cryptocurrency world, you will have noticed the meteoric rise of NEO. ### NEO, formerly known as Antshares, has had an incredible week - an incredible *month*, to be honest. ![](http://i.imgur.com/e6IlYul.png) ![](http://i.imgur.com/h2ka0Pp.png) I literally watched the price go from $7 just over 1 week ago to $15, to $24 just yesterday, and finally hitting it's all-time high at $37 before dropping back to to $32 today. NEO rose just about 200% in one week, and more than 370% in the last month. (At the point of me writing this post it was at 200%, but just dropped down a little). ### Let me put it into perspective: If you invested $1,000 when NEO was at $7, you'd now have $4,571. (Even at "just" $32 per NEO) And if you'd have invested $100,000, well... **you would have turned your investment into almost have a million dollars in 1 week.** There have been jokes going around in the community for the last few days, about how NEO is turning people into ***millionaires***... and it's true. ![](http://i.imgur.com/JXsKdAv.jpg)
## What is NEO? #### Formerly known as Antshares, NEO is the first ever public chain project from China. It's a ***smart asset platform*** which combines the power of smart contracts and digital assets, enabling security, trust and transparency through digital certificates. Antshares allows developers to create their own **smart contracts** using very well-known programming languages like Java, C# and Python. This way, the smart asset platform offers unique **benefits** compared to Ethereum. > "AntShares is a decentralized and distributed network protocol based on Blockchain technology. AntShares allows digitalizing real-world assets, enabling registration, depository, transfer, trading, clearing and settlement via a peer-to-peer network. AntShares keeps records of the transfers of digital assets with e-contracts. ![img](https://steemitimages.com/0x0/https://managingyourfinance.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Antshares.jpg)
## What are the reasons for the sudden rise? ### 1 - Antshares becomes NEO The main reason is that Antshares have now completed their ***re-branding*** to NEO, which means novelty or newness in Greek. I have actually [written a post](https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@sirwinchester/antshares-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-chinese-ethereum) about **Antshares** and its huge potential last month - little did I know that the price would more than quadruple soon. The **rebranding** of course resulted in a lot of press buzz around the cryptocurrency, attracting more and more investors. ![img](https://steemitimages.com/0x0/http://i.imgur.com/SlsFgnn.jpg)
### 2 - The new "Chinese Ethereum" ? NEO is the ***very first open-source blockchain platform*** developed in **China**. It's similar to **Ethereum** in many ways, since both are smart contract platforms, but NEO offers some more benefits and also more programming languages (including C# code) which makes it more attractive for developers. NEO is currently in a similar position to Ethereum at the beginning of 2017 - both in terms of value and launch phase. The company has recently collaborated with Chinese certificate authorities to **map real-world assets** via its smart contract platform. They have also established partnerships with several other big crypto-startups like Bancor, CoinDash and others. Additionally, they just received a new patent for cross-chain distributed interoperability. ![](http://i.imgur.com/N4HYvKm.jpg)
## Future Outlook Some people are speculating that the NEO value will reach $100, and that it might even reach *several* hundred dollars until the end of the year. I personally can't confirm or deny that - all I know is that the demand for NEO is still high, and that the platform offers a lot of unique benefits. Regarding the tremendous size of the Chinese market, I wouldn't be surprised if NEO would really stay within the top 10 of cryptocurrencies by market cap. ### What's your opinion about NEO - did you invest? Is it too late to buy now? And how do you think NEO will develop in the future?

*Images: [1](https://i2.wp.com/ethereumworldnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/maxresdefault-1.jpg?fit=1280%2C720), [2, 3](https://coinmarketcap.com/currencies/neo/), [4, 5](https://steemit.com/cryptocurrency/@sirwinchester/antshares-everything-you-need-to-know-about-the-new-chinese-ethereum), Sources: [1](https://www.inc.com/brian-d-evans/the-ethereum-of-china-neo-is-now-a-top-10-cryptocu.html), [2](https://cointelegraph.com/news/surging-price-allows-digital-currency-neo-to-enter-top-10-list-bitcoin-remains-on-top), [3](https://bitcoinmagazine.com/articles/antshares-rebrands-introduces-neo-and-new-smart-economy1/), [4](http://ethereumworldnews.com/neo-antshares-the-ethereum-of-china-surges-past-25/), [5](http://www.gevestor.de/details/antshares-chinas-erste-blockchain-und-was-anleger-wissen-muessen-806738.html)*