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, Erik Zhang, the project's other co-founder, has sole control over approximately 85% of the assets, valued between $200 million and $250 million, using a single signature.
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 attempt in Hong Kong. Da has proposed a restructuring plan that involves relocating the Neo Foundation from Singapore to the Cayman Islands, establishing an independent five-member board, and barring both founders from the board for 24 months.
Additionally, he suggests redistributing approximately 26 million NEO and 40 million GAS tokens to tokenholders. In contrast, Zhang's counter-proposal recommends maintaining the Foundation's current location in Singapore and keeping himself on the board. Zhang also calls for a formal investigation into historical asset management to address potential corruption and improper asset transfers.
Da has dismissed these allegations, stating that there is no corruption or misuse of funds. Observers have noted that NEO's treasury 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 largely under Zhang's single-signature control, and the second half, comprising bitcoin, ether, stablecoins, and other 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 relinquish their individual control over assets. However, the success of this plan depends on Zhang's cooperation, and Da has stated that if Zhang refuses, the community should decide the next course of action.