Can someone tell me why this coin has suddenly taken off in the last couple of weeks?
IMO all of the Mijin news has attracted attention to NEM and when people research and learn the details about the project they realize it's potential and conclude XEM is currently undervalued because:
1) Zero inflation.
No new XEM will ever be generated so it is one of the few coins that currently has no inflation.
2) Good initial distribution.
No premine or unfair initial distribution of the currency to insiders/devs. I bet most of the greedy short-sighted stake holders probably sold out long ago so most current holders believe in the project and have very long positions thus there is not much supply of XEM also due it part because of #1 above.
3) POI (proof of importance)
POI appears to be working as intended which has many advantages over POW. There is no hashrate arms race nor massive amounts of energy required to secure the network. You don't have miners who are forced to sell freshly mined currency to cover their mining costs which again limits supply. Securing the network is actually very cheap compared to POW currency.
4) Solid dev team/leadership.
A lot of people are turned off by the current situation with BTC and ETH development for various reasons. The NEM team seems to be very talented and they appear to be "down for the cause" with a grand long term vision.
5) Solid tech.
NEM is one of the strongest platforms when you look under the hood. Anybody that researches the details will be very impressed with the technology that powers NEM and the features it offers as well as very impressive plans for the future. The use of this tech by the banking industry via Mijin signals this same confidence.
6) Solid dev/community funds.
The multisig funds will fuel progress for quite some time and puts this project in a very healthy long term position, especially as the price increases.
There is no other cryptocurrency that offers all of the above IMO and slowly the secret is getting out. As an initial stakeholder I personally plan to ignore the roller-coaster and hope to hold AT LEAST until 1XEM = 1USD because I truly believe in it's potential to change the world and that won't happen overnight...
