I believe NEO is being held down on purpose so the growth is more organic and realistic. This makes it less volatile. You will find that NEO goes down when BTC goes up in greater correlation than most coins. It drops hard when BTC goes up because people are rotating NEO to BTC to NEO to BTC. Other Alts are way more volatile and you could lose your shirt (or make a killing) trading out of BTC. I personally HODL and ride the wave up.

As to whether it will be bigger than Etherium I'm not sure. Etherium has the first mover advantage which is huge but it will not be used in China in the long run. Short to medium term I think Etherium, long term I think the Chinese economy takes NEO to a higher total market cap.