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

For years, NEO's treasury was managed through an unconventional setup, with hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto assets controlled by personal wallets, lacking multisig protections and formal oversight. According to co-founder Da Hongfei, Erik Zhang, the other co-founder and architect of NEO's core protocol, has sole control over approximately 85% of the assets, worth between $200 million and $250 million. Da estimates that the native NEO and GAS tokens held by Zhang are currently valued at more than NEO's $197 million market capitalization. The two founders have been publicly disputing since December, resulting in rival governance plans and an unsuccessful mediation effort in Hong Kong. Da's proposal, published on GitHub, calls for the Neo Foundation to be redomiciled 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 staying on the board and keeping the Foundation in Singapore. Zhang's proposal also includes a formal investigation into historical asset management, addressing potential corruption, improper asset transfers, and concealment of public assets. Da has dismissed these provisions, stating that there is no corruption or misuse of funds. The numbers, however, appear striking, with NEO's treasury holding 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 into two halves, with the native NEO and GAS tokens under Zhang's single-signature control and the non-token assets, including bitcoin, ether, stablecoins, and fund-of-fund investments, 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. The restructuring depends on Zhang's cooperation, and Da has committed to a one-to-three month timeline. If Zhang refuses, Da believes the community should decide the next course of action.