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

The NEO project's treasury, valued at hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto assets, has been controlled through personal wallets with no multi-sig protections and limited oversight. According to co-founder Da Hongfei, approximately 85% of the funds are controlled by Erik Zhang, the project's other co-founder, with a single signature. The native NEO and GAS tokens held by Zhang are currently worth between $200 million and $250 million. Da has proposed a restructuring plan that includes relocating the Neo Foundation to the Cayman Islands, establishing an independent five-member board, and redistributing tokens to holders. In contrast, Zhang's counter-proposal involves staying on the board and keeping the Foundation in Singapore, as well as conducting a formal investigation into historical asset management. The dispute between the two founders has been ongoing since December and has resulted in rival governance plans and an unsuccessful mediation effort. Da's proposal aims to introduce mutual disarmament, where both he and Zhang would relinquish control over the assets. However, the success of this plan relies 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.