Co-Founder Holds Key to $200 Million in Crypto Project, Sparking Governance Dispute

For years, the crypto project's treasury was managed through an unconventional setup, with hundreds of millions of dollars in assets controlled by personal wallets and lacking multisig protections and formal oversight. According to co-founder Da Hongfei, the person in control of these assets is Erik Zhang, the project's other co-founder and core protocol architect. Da estimates that Zhang holds around 85% of the project's assets, worth between $200 million and $250 million, with single signature control. The native tokens held by Zhang are currently valued at more than the project's $197 million market capitalization. The two co-founders have been publicly disputing since December, resulting in rival governance plans and an unsuccessful mediation effort. Da has proposed a restructuring plan that involves redomiciling the project's 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. Zhang's plan also calls for a formal investigation into historical asset management, which Da has dismissed as an empty accusation. The project's treasury holds approximately $460 million in assets, double its market value, while the token has dropped 98% from its 2018 peak. The treasury is split between two halves, with the native tokens largely under Zhang's control and the non-token assets managed by Da's entity, NGD. Da has framed his proposal as a mutual disarmament, where both he and Zhang would sacrifice 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 multisig lock address.