Neo Co-Founder Proposes $461 Million Treasury Reset to End Founder Control

Neo co-founder Da Hongfei has proposed a comprehensive overhaul of the Neo Foundation to resolve years of governance deadlock and transition the network away from founder-centric control. The plan follows the project's first public financial disclosure since 2019, which revealed approximately $461 million in assets held by the Neo Foundation (NF) and Neo Global Development (NGD) as of the end of 2025. Under the "Giveback II" initiative, Hongfei proposes returning 49.5 million NEO tokens to the community. The restructuring would involve redomiciling the foundation to the Cayman Islands, establishing a five-member board, and appointing an independent Supervisor with the power to block bylaw breaches. Notably, the proposal includes a 24-month ban preventing either founder from serving on the board or supervisory body. Co-founder Erik Zhang has opposed the plan, arguing that the move toward off-chain legal structures lacks transparency and strips the project of essential technical oversight. Zhang characterized the Cayman Islands transition as a "cosmetic shell change" that fails to address historical accountability and unresolved transparency issues. The dispute highlights the challenges facing legacy blockchain networks as they struggle to compete with modern ecosystems like Solana and Ethereum. Hongfei acknowledged that Neo's user base has declined since the 2017-2021 cycle, particularly as the Chinese market shrank under regulatory bans from Beijing.