This forgotten crypto project has positioned itself at the center of Asia’s digital asset revolution – right as the world starts paying attention again.
I’m writing this from Melbourne in October 2025, watching what may be the most consequential moment in Asian capital markets since China joined the WTO unfold in real-time.
First, a bit about me. My name is Uliana, I’m an enthusiastic researcher who loves diving into obscure investment opportunities that don’t make headlines until they make fortunes.
Korean IP rights. Labubu collectibles before the global explosion. Tokenized fonts. When everyone watches Bitcoin, I’m three clicks deep into projects that sound insane until they don’t.
That’s how I found NEO.
Most investors wrote it off after China’s 2021 crypto ban. I almost did too.
Then I noticed something strange: while crypto Twitter debated Ethereum scaling, China’s CSI 300 index climbed 16% in 2025, reaching decade-highs. Hong Kong raised $41.6 billion through IPOs. And Chinese equities added $3 trillion in market value in months.
But beneath the rally, something fundamental shifted. The Gen Z cohort driving Pop Mart to $55 billion demanded direct ownership of real assets. Not stocks.
China has maintained capital controls for decades, primarily regulating the flow of money across its borders to manage economic stability and control foreign investment.
While Wall Street chases mainstream crypto with sentiment-driven prices, Chinese technology firms have quietly built the infrastructure to tokenize trillions in real-world assets. And at the center sits NEO – the blockchain project almost everyone wrote off.
I think they’re wrong, and today I’ll explain why I think NEO is worth looking at.
Let’s go 👇
Uliana Lotova is a statistics student based in Melbourne. A part-time fencer, part-time football player, her favorite feeling is saying “I knew it!” when an early opportunity develops to a great deal. She is interested in the future of technologies and Asian history. This is her first issue with Alts.
Table of Contents
The trillion-dollar lockbox problem
According to the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), China banned crypto in 2021 not because blockchain isn’t a good technology, or because doesn’t work well. Rather it was to prevent financial crime caused by highly speculative digital assets and remain in control of liquidity flows.
For China, the real opportunity was never in Bitcoin mining. It was digitizing China’s $17 trillion economy in ways that work with regulators.
However, international investors face an impossible situation. While Chinese markets provide access to world-class assets, cutting-edge renewable energy, prime infrastructure, and next-gen manufacturing, foreigners are unable to invest, thanks to capital controls which restrict the free flow of foreign capital into and out of China,
- QFII quotas. These are limits set by China’s State Administration of Foreign Exchange on the amount that foreign institutional investors are allowed to invest in Chinese domestic securities)
- VIE structure. This is a complex arrangement used by Chinese companies to bypass restrictions on foreign ownership.
Current workarounds (ADRs, Hong Kong listings, limited QFII allocations) only provide equity access. Vast real-world asset categories remain untouchable.
And that brings us to NEO.
What is NEO?
NEO coin is the native cryptocurrency of the NEO blockchain, a platform designed to digitize assets, identities, and automate management through smart contracts.
The platform supports popular programming languages for smart contract development and uses a delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerant (dBFT) consensus mechanism for high transaction throughput and security.
NEO’s contrarian bet: Compliance over decentralization
Most crypto projects fled China in 2021. NEO did the opposite.
Instead of fighting regulations, founder Da Hongfei embraced them completely.
The platform integrated into BSN, China’s official Blockchain Service Network, creating government-supervised chains delivering blockchain benefits without regulatory friction.
1) Digital Yuan infrastructure
As China accelerates its rollout of CBDCs (central bank digital currencies), NEO provides instant finality while consuming a fraction of Bitcoin’s energy.
Founder Da Hongfei:
“I do not expect the government to call me in the short term… But in the medium term? Why not?”
In August 2025, Reuters reported that China actively considers yuan-backed stablecoins to challenge US dollar dominance.
NEO could absolutely act as a starting point with a vast network of international users and its presence on the major Crypto exchanges.
2) AI-powered tokenization
NEO’s partnership with ChainGPT brings AI to smart contracts, enabling enterprises to tokenize assets with minimal coding.
This transforms NEO from a technical platform to an accessible bridge. Solar farms, equipment, real estate – all digitizable for international investors through compliant infrastructure!
Even in a crypto space, where each transaction is assumed to be uncontrolled, NEO found a way to become compliant. Built-in NeoID ensures compliance, remaining independent from external validation. It’s pure math, no room for human judgement.
To make capital flow easier to follow, NEO developed a dual-token economy. What it means is that the Network is split into 2 separate flows – validations and operations.
- To perform an action, user pays a GAS fee
- To validate an action or vote on the network changes one needs to hold NEO.
Both transactions are recorded in different ledgers, yet remain closely connected.
The dual-token model creates interesting dynamics – GAS demand theoretically increases with enterprise adoption independent of NEO speculation.
3) Hong Kong’s RWA gateway
Chinese financial giants are targeting the Global $30 trillion RWA (real-world asset) opportunity, with Ant Group preparing stablecoin applications and JD.com exploring licensing.
China’s first RWA technical standards launched in March 2025, signaling Beijing’s serious digitization intent.
NEO’s strategic positioning
On August 7, 2025, Hong Kong launched the world’s first comprehensive RWA registry, providing end-to-end tokenization services.
The August 1 Stablecoins Ordinance creates clear institutional guidelines, crucially embracing multicurrency stablecoins pegged to offshore CNY – a compliant pathway between Chinese assets and global capital.
With their new presence in Hong Kong, NEO benefits from direct access to the governance body, and can establish a reliable HKD-CNY capital pipeline from the outside straight into Chinese infrastructure projects.
In China, NEO leads as the BSN’s independent blockchain, but in its own way. It’s fully aligned with regulations as Beijing advances yuan-backed stablecoins.
Risks that could derail everything
I’m not pumping NEO tokens. There are some very real threats that could make this irrelevant, and I need to see them resolved before investing personally.
Ant Group
Ant Group processed $300 billion in tokenized assets last year and handles $1 trillion in global payments, and is applying for stablecoin licenses in Singapore, Hong Kong, and Luxembourg.
With Alipay embedded in daily Chinese life and direct People’s Bank of China relationships, they could make NEO irrelevant overnight.
In my opinion, this is the single biggest competitive threat.
Institutional competition
Standard Chartered, Animoca Brands, and HKT have just created a joint venture for HKD-backed stablecoins.
All are institutions with established Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) licensing and billions in assets with direct regulatory lines. However good your technology is, nothing replaces a good old handshake.
BSN paradox
NEO’s BSN integration provides legitimacy but creates vulnerability.
Operating alongside China UnionPay and China Mobile, if Beijing standardizes blockchain infrastructure, NEO becomes one choice among many.
In a state-directed economy, compliance may be table stakes, but it’s not a moat!
To get a sense of how investors on the ground in Hong Kong are thinking about the competitive threat, I reached out to Adrian Fu, Altea Hong Kong City Captain.
“I largely agree on the impact Ant Group would have on NEO, but I don’t think it’s a binary outcome. Generally speaking, the Chinese government often grants a small number of players access and resources to compete in most industries. Think Korean chaebol model.
I don’t think Beijing will allow Ant to dominate all, and even if Alipay is embedded in daily life, there could be a scenario where the gov’t forces Ant and players like NEO to work together.
I could wildly imagine PBOC instructing NEO to use Alipay as a means to off-ramp their native tokens to fiat / eRMB. OR they could force Ant to facilitate a sandbox from which government-approved players can access their ecosystem to build various businesses.”
– Adrian Fu
What investors should watch
NEO isn’t a crypto price speculation, it’s ultimately a wager on four trends:
- China’s yuan stablecoin push
- Hong Kong’s RWA standardization
- Gen Z demand for direct asset ownership (Pop Mart’s $55B valuation proves this), and
- Government commitment to digitization over traditional stimulus.
I see three catalysts that would shift this from research to an investment opportunity:
1) Enterprise adoption
Which Chinese firms are actually using NEO’s BSN chains beyond pilot tests? I’m talking real revenue-generating applications, not partnership announcements.
Established enterprises deploying infrastructure processing real transactions would change everything.
2) Stablecoin licensing
NEO-based projects securing Hong Kong stablecoin licensing validates the compliance strategy. Competitors monopolizing licenses is a red flag.
Watch for announcements in the wake of the Trump-Xi APEC meeting.
3) Digital Yuan integration
Official signals NEO’s infrastructure is considered for broader digital yuan applications would be transformative.
Ant Group or China UnionPay emerging as winners weakens the thesis. Hong Kong Fintech Week (Nov 3–7) was packed with major policy news this year.
Investment considerations
- Conservative: Wait for concrete adoption or licensing news. Execution risk is massive.
- Moderate: Small allocation (1-2% max) as lottery ticket with tight stops.
- Aggressive: Position amidst upcoming Crypto Winter in favor of the main outcomes during Hong Kong Fintech Week: permission to share global order books with overseas affiliates and a launch of a tokenization pilot program.
Adrian believes Hong Kong’s stance is cautious, but temporary:
“At the moment, general sentiment is still on the conservative side.
Yes, SFC has kicked off stablecoin licensing applications but a lot more clarity is involved on a regulatory level.
Going moderate won’t be too far off. Some worry about the crypto bear winter that’s coming, or has started. But I feel the volatility of crypto prices won’t impact the inevitability of China’s goal to develop a much more robust digital Internet economy…using blockchain, AI and digital currency.
China wants to lead, and I’m sure they will do whatever it takes to ensure it happens on a regulatory and commercial standpoint.”
– Adrian Fu
My personal stance: I don’t hold NEO or GAS. I’m watching the three catalysts before investing. If they materialize, I’ll likely take a moderate position. Otherwise, it’s just an interesting case study that didn’t quite pan out.
Closing thoughts
NEO made the hardest choice in 2021 – opting for compliance over ideology; for patience over hype.
While others fled and raised billions, NEO spent four long years building government relationships and proving blockchain works within China’s framework. That strategic patience is rare in crypto. Usually fatal.
But context shifted. Real estate shares surge despite empty apartments, because markets believe digitization and tokenization offer the path forward, not traditional stimulus.
As Asia tokenizes trillions in RWAs, as China becomes “crypto-curious“, NEO sits at the intersection of every fintech trend reshaping Asian finance. Unlike previous crypto cycles, this has government backing, institutional capital, and regulatory clarity converging.
The big question is whether NEO’s seven-year journey was prescient positioning, or whether faster competitors with deeper pockets capture the value first.
The broader lesson for Alts readers is this: compliance-first approaches may be the only viable strategy for accessing the capitall locked behind the Great Chinese Wall.
We’ve seen similar dynamics in Korean IP markets, Japanese collectibles, Southeast Asian fintech. When massive capital gets locked, winners aren’t those with “pure” technology, but those willing to do unsexy compliance work and patient execution.
In the coming months, we will see if NEO’s strategy pays off. Major partnerships, licensing, or government integrations would validate the compliance-first approach. If incumbents dominate, NEO becomes a compliant also-ran. A valuable case study, but not the best investment.
The tokenization infrastructure is being built today. Whether NEO captures that value remains the trillion-dollar question.
That’s it for today!
Thanks to Stefan and the Alts team for pushing me to add more context to this piece. The research rabbit hole on Asian tokenization has been fascinating.
There are some nuanced (and controversial) thoughts that didn’t fit in this issue. We’ll share them separately in the Alts Community.
Disclosures
- This issue was written by Uliana Lotova, and edited by Stefan von Imhof, with proofreading and help from Adrian Fu.
- This issue was sponsored by Abundant Mines.
- Uliana currently has no financial interest in NEO, or in any companies mentioned in this issue.
