The NEO project's treasury, worth hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto assets, has been managed through personal wallets without multi-signature protection or formal oversight. According to co-founder Da Hongfei, Erik Zhang, the project's other co-founder, controls around 85% of the funds with a single signature. The tokens held by Zhang are valued between $200 million and $250 million, exceeding the project's current market capitalization of $197 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, with a focus on investigating historical asset management and addressing potential corruption.
The two co-founders have been publicly disputing since December, resulting 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, with the goal of establishing a more transparent and secure governance structure.
However, the success of this plan depends on Zhang's cooperation, and the community may need to intervene if he refuses to transfer the single-signature token holdings to a multi-signature lock address.