A Single Individual Controls $200 Million in Crypto for a Project, Sparking Concerns Over Governance

The treasury of NEO, a cryptocurrency project, has been managed in an unconventional manner, with hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto assets controlled through personal wallets, lacking multi-signature protections and formal oversight. According to co-founder Da Hongfei, the individual 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 assets, worth between $200 million and $250 million, with single-signature control. This amount exceeds NEO's current market capitalization of $197 million. 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, 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 suggests maintaining the current governance structure and conducting a formal investigation into historical asset management. Da has dismissed these allegations, stating that there is no corruption or misuse of funds. However, some observers have raised concerns about the project's treasury, which 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. The implementation of this proposal depends on Zhang's cooperation, and Da has committed to a one-to-three month timeline. If Zhang refuses, Da believes that the community should decide the next course of action.