Is this the project that was once called China's Ethereum?
The two founders of NEO publicly fell out: Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang accused each other of monopolizing financial power and lacking transparency.
On December 31, news broke that the two core founders of NEO erupted in public disputes today, with both sides fiercely clashing over project funding control and governance issues. Da Hongfei struck first, accusing co-founder Erik Zhang of long-term personal control over the vast majority of NEO/GAS assets, which not only violated the promise to transfer assets to a multi-signature wallet but also unilaterally used financial advantages to 'hijack' protocol governance. Da Hongfei stated that his previous silence was to maintain community confidence, but now he has no choice but to make this public and promised to release a financial report in the first quarter of 2026, vowing to use all means to regain control of the treasury.
In response, Erik Zhang quickly countered, stating that the core issue lies in the financial 'black box'. He pointed out that all foundation assets outside of NEO/GAS have long been controlled by Da Hongfei alone, and that no auditable financial disclosures have ever been provided to the community or third parties. Erik Zhang emphasized that the reason he insists on holding NEO/GAS is to conduct 'minimum risk control' to prevent these core assets from being caught up in Da Hongfei's opaque operational structure; otherwise, the consequences would be catastrophic. $NEO
