The NEO project has been operating with an unconventional financial setup, where hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto assets have been controlled through personal wallets without multi-sig protections or formal oversight. According to co-founder Da Hongfei, Erik Zhang, the other co-founder and architect of the core protocol, has sole control over approximately 85% of the project's assets, valued between $200 million and $250 million.
Da has proposed a restructuring plan, which includes redomiciling 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, keeping the Foundation in Singapore, and conducting a formal investigation into historical asset management. The dispute between the co-founders has sparked a debate over the project's governance, with some observers noting that the treasury holds approximately $460 million in assets, double the project's market value, while the token has dropped 98% from its 2018 peak. 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 the proposal depends on Zhang's cooperation, and it remains uncertain whether he will agree to transfer the single-signature token holdings to a multi-sig lock address.