The treasury of NEO, a cryptocurrency project, has been managed in an unconventional manner, with hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto assets controlled by personal wallets lacking multi-signature protections and formal oversight. According to co-founder Da Hongfei, the individual controlling around 85% of the assets is Erik Zhang, the project's other co-founder and core protocol architect.
Da estimated that the native NEO and GAS tokens held by Zhang are currently worth between $200 million and $250 million. This amount exceeds NEO's current market capitalization of $197 million. The two co-founders have been publicly airing their disputes since December, resulting in rival governance plans and an unsuccessful mediation effort in Hong Kong.
Da has proposed a restructuring plan that involves redomiciling the Neo Foundation from Singapore to the Cayman Islands, replacing the current two-founder governance with an independent five-member board, and redistributing approximately 26 million NEO and 40 million GAS to tokenholders. In contrast, Zhang's counter-proposal suggests maintaining the Foundation's current location in Singapore and keeping himself on the board. Zhang's plan also calls for a formal investigation into historical asset management, including potential corruption, improper asset transfers, and concealment of public assets. Da has dismissed these accusations, stating that there is no corruption or misuse of funds.
The project's treasury holds around $460 million in assets, roughly double its market value, while the token has dropped 98% from its 2018 peak. Da has proposed a mutual disarmament, where both he and Zhang would relinquish control over the assets.
However, the success of this plan depends on Zhang's cooperation, and it remains uncertain whether he will agree to transfer the single-signature token holdings to a multi-signature lock address.