For years, the NEO treasury was managed through an unconventional setup, with hundreds of millions of dollars in crypto assets controlled by personal wallets and lacking multisig protections or formal oversight. According to co-founder Da Hongfei, this responsibility fell on the shoulders of Erik Zhang, the other co-founder and architect of NEO's core protocol. Da estimated that Zhang alone controls around 85% of the assets, worth between $200 million and $250 million, using a single signature, with no transfers made to any individual or multi-sig.
The native NEO and GAS tokens held by Zhang are valued at over $197 million, exceeding the project's current market capitalization. The two co-founders have been publicly disputing since December, resulting in rival governance plans and an unsuccessful mediation attempt in Hong Kong. Da proposed a restructuring plan on GitHub, which involves relocating the Neo Foundation from Singapore to the Cayman Islands, replacing the current two-founder governance with an independent five-member board, and redistributing approximately 26 million NEO and 40 million GAS to tokenholders.
In response, Zhang proposed an alternative plan, which includes staying on the board, keeping the Foundation in Singapore, and conducting a formal investigation into historical asset management. Da dismissed Zhang's accusations, stating that there was 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 under Zhang's single-signature control and the non-token assets managed by NGD, the entity run by Da. Da 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 the proposal depends on Zhang's cooperation, and Da expressed uncertainty about Zhang's willingness to cooperate.