The NEO price surged on Monday after Dutch financial news outlet Het Financieele Dagblad published an interview with NEO founder Da Hongfei. He speculated that a future collaboration between NEO and the Chinese government is a possibility.
The fact that the government contacted Da prior to the official crackdown indicated that regulators are not planning to widen the net around Chinese cryptocurrency projects like NEO – at least not in the near-term.
Another factor influencing the rally is bitcoin exchange Bitfinex’s recent decision to add NEO to its platform. The NEO price surged 50% earlier this month following its listing on bitcoin exchange Bitfinex.
NEO can now be swapped with USD, BTC and ETH. This will provide increased liquidity for NEO and gives the token its first exposure to a major USD market (excluding the USD-pegged Tether). This trading pair diversification will mitigate the impact that NEO/CNY pairs have on the token’s global average price.