Crypto Project's $200 Million Fate Hangs in the Balance as Co-Founders Clash

For years, the NEO project's treasury was managed through a unique setup, with hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto assets controlled by personal wallets and lacking multisig protection or formal oversight. According to co-founder Da Hongfei, the individual controlling around 85% of the project's assets is Erik Zhang, the other co-founder and architect of the core protocol. Da estimated that the native NEO and GAS tokens held by Zhang are worth between $200 million and $250 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, which includes relocating the Neo Foundation from Singapore to the Cayman Islands, establishing an independent five-member board, and redistributing approximately 26 million NEO and 40 million GAS tokens to tokenholders. In contrast, Zhang's counter-proposal involves staying on the board and keeping the Foundation in Singapore. Zhang's plan also calls for a formal investigation into historical asset management, including provisions to address potential corruption and improper asset transfers. Da 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 single-signature control and the non-token assets, including bitcoin, ether, and stablecoins, managed by NGD, the entity run by Da. Da 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 the proposal depends on Zhang's cooperation, and Da expressed uncertainty about whether Zhang is willing to cooperate.