Co-Founder Holds Keys to $200 Million in Project Crypto, Sparking Governance Debate

For years, the NEO project's treasury has been managed through an unconventional setup, with hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto assets controlled by personal wallets and lacking multi-sig protections or formal oversight. According to co-founder Da Hongfei, the individual responsible for controlling around 85% of the funds, valued between $200 million and $250 million, is Erik Zhang, the project's other co-founder and core protocol architect. Da has stated that these funds have never been transferred to a multi-sig or any individual. The native NEO and GAS tokens held by Zhang are currently worth more than the project's $197 million market capitalization. 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 governance with an independent five-member board, and redistributing approximately 26 million NEO and 40 million GAS tokens to tokenholders. In contrast, Zhang's counter-proposal suggests maintaining the current governance structure, with him remaining on the board, and calls for a formal investigation into historical asset management. 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 the project's market value, while the token has dropped 98% from its 2018 peak. The treasury is split between two halves, with the native NEO and GAS tokens under Zhang's control and the non-token assets, including bitcoin, ether, and stablecoins, managed by NGD, the entity run by Da. Da has framed his proposal as a form of mutual disarmament, where both he and Zhang would sacrifice their individual control over assets. However, the success of this proposal depends on Zhang's cooperation, and it remains uncertain whether he will agree to transfer the single-signature token holdings to a multi-sig lock address.