Neo Founder Proposes $461M Treasury Overhaul to Reform Decentralized Governance

Neo co-founder Da Hongfei has put forward a sweeping overhaul of the Neo Foundation, attempting to replace informal, founder-driven governance with formal structures after years of deadlock left one of crypto's oldest networks effectively frozen in place. The plan arrives alongside Neo's first public financial disclosure since 2019, unveiling approximately $461 million in assets held across the Neo Foundation and Neo Global Development at the end of 2025. Hongfei framed the restructuring as a decisive break from the "trust me" model that defined Neo's first decade, suggesting the outcome could serve as a test case for how aging blockchain networks manage substantial treasuries and gracefully transition away from founder control.

The proposal, charmingly dubbed "Giveback II," includes redomiciling the foundation to the Cayman Islands, establishing a five-member board with an independent Supervisor empowered to veto bylaw violations, and imposing a 24-month prohibition on either founder serving on the board or supervisory body. According to the disclosure, Neo Foundation and NGD collectively control roughly 41 million NEO, representing 31.3% of supply, primarily under single-signature control. The plan would return 49.5 million reserved NEO to the community and consolidate NGD-managed investments back into the foundation, which would operate under mandatory annual financial reports, onchain attestations for large transfers, and fully disclosed multi-signature wallets for Bitcoin, Ether, stablecoins and other liquid assets.

Co-founder Erik Zhang has raised objections to key elements of the proposal, exposing further fractures at the top of the project. Zhang argues the proposal anchors Neo's legitimacy in offchain legal structures and still permits opaque third-party attestations rather than directly verifiable onchain addresses. He contends that excluding him from the board for 24 months effectively strips Neo of critical technical oversight and characterizes the proposed Cayman "reset" as mere cosmetic restructuring that sidesteps historical accountability and outstanding transparency concerns.

Neo has faced an uphill battle maintaining relevance in a market where activity has concentrated onto Ethereum, a handful of layer-2s, Solana, and a few other chains. Hongfei acknowledged that Neo's user base today is "not where it was in the 2017 to 2021 cycle," noting the Chinese market that once drove activity has dwindled under Beijing's bans and that Neo missed "DeFi Summer" following delays in shipping its N3 upgrade. Hongfei now contends the next decade of onchain activity will be driven less by humans than by autonomous AI agents transacting on their behalf, positioning Neo X as an "agent-first" blockchain optimized for this shift.

The real test for both the governance reboot and the AI thesis, Hongfei said, will be whether Neo can complete its restructuring and attract a meaningful pipeline of agent-native projects over the next 12 to 24 months. He indicated he would not seek a board seat if those milestones are missed, though the ongoing dispute with Zhang suggests the path forward remains far from clear.