For years, the NEO treasury has been held in a unique setup, with hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto assets controlled through personal wallets and lacking multisig protections or formal oversight. According to co-founder Da Hongfei, Erik Zhang, the project's other co-founder and core protocol architect, holds around 85% of the treasury, valued at between $200 million and $250 million, with single signature control.
This amount exceeds NEO's current market capitalization of $197 million. The native NEO and GAS tokens held by Zhang have never been transferred to a multi-sig or any individual.
Da has proposed a restructuring plan, which includes redomiciling 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 to tokenholders. Zhang has countered with a proposal that includes staying on the board, keeping the Foundation in Singapore, and conducting a formal investigation into historical asset management. The investigation would address potential corruption, improper asset transfers, and concealment of public assets. Da has dismissed these provisions, stating that there is no corruption or misuse of funds.
The project's treasury holds around $460 million in assets, roughly double its 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 over $200 million in bitcoin, ether, stablecoins, and venture investments, 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 multisig lock address.