A lot of people may have noticed that the NEO price went up quite a bit over the weekend. At the time, there were some reports circulating online involving the Chinese government. After some digging, we found out a few more details about what may be going on behind the scenes. It is unclear how all of this will play out, though, as no government sources have officially confirmed anything at this point. Nor would they do so, as they have no affiliation with this project.

NEO may be the Future of ICOs

It is no secret that the Chinese government hasn’t taken too kindly to initial coin offerings. In fact, China is one of the handful of countries where organizing ICOs is essentially banned for the time being. That doesn’t mean this new business model will not be pursued any further, though, as there is still a lot of money waiting to be raised. How this will be done without governmental approval remains the big question.

Some people are claiming that NEO will play a big role in this regard. This currency has always been labeled the Ethereum of China, although it hasn’t exactly lived up to those expectations just yet. The Chinese government has not shown any significant interest in NEO, nor is it looking to use this platform as the go-to ICO solution. If initial coin offerings make a return to China, they will revolve around centralized and governed platforms which do not involve cryptocurrencies or digital tokens issued on the Ethereum blockchain.

At the same time, it seems there is some genuine interest in NEO as a new ICO platform. A lot of people are claiming this particular project is exempt from Chinese regulations since it already follows the country’s rules and guidelines. That is a rather interesting assumption, as China has no official ICO guidelines as of yet. Without such a framework, there are no rules to follow, and NEO cannot be compliant whatsoever. While the project originated in China, it doesn’t mean projects hosted on this chain won’t be considered to be ICOs.  

Assuming there is some truth to these ICO rumors, things may turn out pretty spectacularly for NEO. These are just rumors at this point, though, and should not be considered anything more. NEO has the ambition of becoming China’s first public blockchain-based cryptocurrency. Again, this is a very lofty and ambitious goal that may not be achievable in the long run. Without explicit governmental approval, no digital token or cryptocurrency is legal in China.

While there appears to be a genuine interest in NEO by some firms, it remains to be seen how things will play out. One source claims that companies such as Microsoft and OnChain have an interest in using NEO as their go-to blockchain platforms. Without official announcements by these firms, statements like this one need to be taken with a few buckets of salt. It is good to see an excited community, but for now, these are nothing more than unconfirmed rumors.

It will be interesting to see how the ICO industry evolves in China, though. There is still a very strong belief that the country’s government will reverse its ban in the coming weeks or months. Right now, there is no indication of that happening, at least not where non-government controlled platforms are concerned. NEO certainly has the technology to let people organize ICOs, but it is doubtful any major entity will use it for this specific purpose. Only time will tell if NEO is a true currency or another pump-and-dump coin.