The Origin and Initial Coin Offering (ICO) of NEO
NEO, originally known as AntShares, emerged as a landmark public chain platform in the blockchain space. Its Initial Coin Offering (ICO) took place from August to September 2016, laying the financial foundation for the project's development. Regarding NEO's crowdfunding price, public sources present varying figures, with the most frequently cited being $0.20 per NEO. Additionally, reports have mentioned an initial offering price of $0.159/NEO, and another price of $0.0320/NEO during the ICO period. The ICO raised approximately $5.05 million or 6,119 Bitcoins.
From AntShares to NEO: A Brand Upgrade
The AntShares mainnet officially launched in October 2016, marking the initial operation of its blockchain network. Subsequently, to better reflect its vision of a "smart economy" and its global strategy, the project officially rebranded as NEO in 2017. This renaming was not merely a brand image upgrade but also symbolized NEO's commitment to building a decentralized network that integrates digital assets, digital identity, and smart contracts, often referred to by the industry as "China's Ethereum."
NEO's Core Mechanisms and Technical Features
NEO employs a unique dual-token economic model, comprising NEO and GAS. NEO is the governance token of the network, representing voting and management rights over the NEO blockchain, and is indivisible. NEO holders regularly receive GAS tokens, which are the network's fuel tokens used to pay for transaction fees, smart contract deployment, and operational costs, and are divisible. NEO's consensus mechanism is dBFT (delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance), designed to provide high throughput and finality, ensuring the network's security and efficient operation.
The NEO project was co-founded and driven by core team members such as Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang. Its ecosystem has attracted several projects to launch ICOs on its blockchain, including Red Pulse, Qlink, and Zeepin, demonstrating its potential in the smart economy sector.
NEO's Market Performance and Trading Channels
As of October 2026, NEO's maximum supply is 100 million tokens, with a circulating supply of approximately 70.5388 million to 70.54 million tokens. The current price fluctuates between approximately $2.04 and $2.28, with a market capitalization ranging from about $152 million to $166 million. NEO's all-time high price reached $196.85, and its all-time low was $0.0723.
NEO is available for trading on several major cryptocurrency exchanges, including Binance, OKX, MEXC, LBank, WhiteBIT, Hotcoin, CoinW, Bitunix, WEEX, Paribu, Upbit, LATOKEN, and BYDFi. Investors are advised to verify platform information and trading pairs before trading and to be aware of market risks.
The platform information for sale in this article changes with the listing and delisting dynamics of each exchange. Please refer to the official announcements of the exchanges.
