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

For years, the NEO treasury has been managed through an unconventional setup, with hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto assets controlled by 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 other co-founder and architect of NEO's core protocol. Da estimates that Zhang alone controls around 85% of the assets, worth between $200 million and $250 million, with no multi-signature protection in place. The native NEO and GAS tokens held by Zhang are currently valued at more than NEO'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 in Hong Kong. Da has proposed a restructuring plan, which includes redomiciling the Neo Foundation from Singapore to the Cayman Islands, replacing the current two-founder governance with an independent five-member board, and redistributing roughly 26 million NEO and 40 million GAS to tokenholders. Zhang's counter-proposal involves staying on the board, keeping the Foundation in Singapore, and conducting a formal investigation into historical asset management. Da has dismissed these provisions as baseless accusations, stating that there has been no corruption or misuse of funds. The NEO treasury holds approximately $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, 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. 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 multi-signature lock address.