Neo co-founder Da Hongfei has proposed a sweeping overhaul of the Neo Basis after years of impasse with co-founder Erik Zhang left one among crypto’s oldest networks successfully paralyzed.
The plan follows Neo’s first public monetary disclosure since 2019, displaying about $461 million in belongings held throughout the Neo Basis (NF) and Neo World Growth (NGD) on the finish of 2025.
The proposed restructuring goals to switch what Hongfei described as casual, founder-driven governance, arguing the result may function a check case for a way getting older blockchain networks handle massive treasuries and transition away from founder management.
Zhang has pushed again on key components of the proposal, exposing additional divisions on the prime of the undertaking and rising scrutiny from customers and buyers.
Hongfei advised Cointelegraph that on the core of the restructuring is a break with the founder-centric mannequin that outlined Neo’s first decade.
The proposal would redomicile the muse to the Cayman Islands, create a five-member board and an impartial Supervisor with energy to dam bylaw breaches, and impose a 24-month ban on both founder sitting on the board or supervisory physique.
Neo’s battle has develop into a case research in how older blockchain networks with massive treasuries battle to maneuver past founder-centric governance, particularly after years of casual management and restricted public monetary disclosure.
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Returning NEO tokens to the neighborhood
In response to the disclosure, NF and NGD at the moment management about 41 million NEO (31.3%), primarily below single-signature management. Hongfei’s “Giveback II” plan would return 49.5 million reserved NEO (NEO) to the neighborhood and consolidate NGD-managed investments again into the muse, which might function below necessary annual monetary experiences, onchain attestations for big transfers, and totally disclosed multi-signature wallets for Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), stablecoins and different liquid belongings.
He mentioned the modifications are designed to switch “belief me” governance round treasury and custody, pointing to Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin’s influence-through-research mannequin as a normal founders ought to emulate.
Zhang stays unconvinced, arguing that the proposal grounds Neo’s legitimacy in offchain authorized buildings and nonetheless leaves room for opaque third-party attestations as an alternative of instantly verifiable onchain addresses.
He mentioned excluding him from the board for twenty-four months strips Neo of important technical oversight, calling the Cayman “reset” a beauty shell change that dodges historic accountability and unresolved transparency points.
Governance woes throughout decentralized finance
The push comes as governance fights and perceived insider benefits dominate debate throughout decentralized finance. Aave’s long-running dispute between the founder-aligned Aave Chan Initiative and different stakeholders has raised questions on how a lot energy entrenched service suppliers ought to wield inside decentralized autonomous organizations.
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Neo’s guess to revive community relevance
Behind the governance reset sits an try to offer Neo a reputable new thesis in a market the place exercise has consolidated onto Ethereum, just a few layer-2s, Solana, and a handful of different chains.
Hongfei conceded Neo’s person base right now is “not the place it was within the 2017 to 2021 cycle,” and the numbers “replicate a undertaking that has seen higher days.”
He mentioned customers are extra concentrated in long-term holders and neighborhood teams; the Chinese language market that when fueled exercise has shrunk below Beijing’s bans, and Neo missed “DeFi Summer time” after delays in transport its N3 improve.
He now argues that the following decade of onchain exercise might be pushed much less by people than by autonomous AI brokers transacting on their behalf, positioning Neo X as an “agent-first” blockchain optimized for the shift.
He mentioned the true check for each the governance reboot and the AI thesis might be whether or not, over the following 12 to 24 months, Neo can full its restructuring and entice a significant pipeline of agent-native initiatives, and whether or not he would nonetheless search a board seat if these milestones are missed.
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