The treasury of a prominent cryptocurrency project has been controlled by a single individual, with hundreds of millions of dollars in assets held in personal wallets and lacking formal oversight. According to co-founder Da Hongfei, this individual is Erik Zhang, who holds around 85% of the project's native tokens, currently valued at between $200 million and $250 million.
Da has proposed a restructuring plan, which includes relocating the project's 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 maintaining the foundation's current location in Singapore, while also calling for an investigation into historical asset management.
The dispute between the co-founders has been ongoing since December, with both sides presenting rival governance plans and an unsuccessful mediation effort in Hong Kong. The project's treasury holds approximately $460 million in assets, roughly double its market value, while the token has experienced a significant decline of 98% from its 2018 peak. The situation has resulted in a stalemate, with each co-founder holding leverage over the other and neither willing to concede. Da has framed his proposal as a form of mutual disarmament, where both he and Zhang would relinquish control over the assets.
However, the success of this plan 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.