China-friendly NEO and VeChain surge as Chinese media pushes blockchain

While the rest of the market remains largely stagnant, NEO and VeChain (VET) are experiencing meteoric growth—gaining over 10% and 13% respectively in the last 24 hours.

NEO currently sits at $11.95, having climbed from $10.69 yesterday, whereas VeChain has climbed back to $0.0063 following more than two-weeks of near-constant growth. NEO has now reclaimed the significant losses it incurred in the last week, whereas VeChain reached a 3-month high earlier today.

Late last month, Decrypt reported that President Xi Jinping would be looking to position China as the global frontrunner in the blockchain race. Since then, the country has announced numerous blockchain initiatives, prompting Binance to consider opening up a new office in Beijing. Chinese state media has also jumped on board the blockchain train, with the People's Daily publishing an op-ed describing blockchain as "a breaking point for China to overtake,” and state news outlet Xinhua putting Bitcoin on its front page.

The news initially sent the entire cryptocurrency market into a serious bullish rally, with most cryptocurrencies exploding in price in the hours and days following the announcement. However, cryptocurrencies with strong links to China typically outperformed the market, with NEO and VeChain being among the best performers.

Since President Xi announced China's push for blockchain supremacy, NEO has gained almost 70%, whereas VeChain has performed even better, climbing by more than 110% in just over two weeks. Meanwhile, the rest of the market gained an average of 17% over the same time period—demonstrating the effect that one man's words can have on the still-nascent cryptocurrency markets.