Neo co-founder and core developer Erik Zhang announced on April 14th that he will form an ad hoc emergency committee with core developers and community leaders to take over the operations of the Neo Foundation, citing NF’s dysfunction, unpaid staff and community members, and suspension of individual salaries for eight months.
The announcement marks an escalation of an ongoing governance dispute between Zhang and fellow co-founder Da Hongfei that became public in late December 2025. The announcement comes days after both founders published competing governance reform proposals on GitHub.
Emergency measures and malfunction claims
Zhang said the NF is “virtually dysfunctional now” and most business units have “already begun to shut down.” He said community members and staff were without funding for “an extended period of time” and his own salary had been suspended for eight months.
In his announcement, Zhang cited his role as the “founder of.” $NEOcore developers, and NF Board members,” framing the committee as a necessary intervention.
“To prevent further damage, $NEO I am the founder of an ecosystem as a result of governance failure. $NEOStarting today, core developers and NF Board members will work with certain core developers and community leaders to form an ad hoc committee. ”
The Commission aims to manage and use NF funds to ensure the continued operation of the ecosystem. Zhang shared the main address of the NF fund he currently manages and promised to make all fundraising decisions public.
Zhang also reiterated his criticism of Dar’s financial disclosures, saying Dar “has failed to provide the community with a sufficiently open, transparent, and reliable explanation of the foundation’s financial situation.” Neo issued its first financial report in more than five years in March, revealing that NF and Neo Global Development have total assets of US$460.8 million. This report was initially released as a preview, but has since been finalized with no changes to the numbers. NGD commissioned a Hong Kong-based CPA firm to conduct an independent consent process review and announced the results on April 2nd, confirming the quantities of seven digital assets held in NGD’s Binance account. The identity of the CPA firm has not been made public.
Temporary arrangement, two termination conditions
Zhang said the emergency measures were clearly temporary and “not intended to serve as a permanent governance structure.” The committee should be disbanded once either his own governance reform proposals or Mr Dar’s proposals are widely accepted by the community.
The two proposals present contrasting visions for Neo’s future governance structure.
On April 9, Da Hongfei announced a restructuring plan that would move NF from Singapore to the Cayman Islands, create a five-member board of directors with both founders banned from office for 24 months, and redistribute about $26 million. $NEO Grants 40 million GAS to token holders and replaces floating votes with staked votes that require a 180-day release period.
Zhang responded four days later with a counterproposal that centered on historical accountability, sectoral board authority, and eliminating conflicts of interest. His proposal includes provisions for investigations into corruption and improper disposition of assets, and states that historic responsibilities “shall not be suspended, extinguished, or avoided by governance reorganization, corporate restructuring, or change in responsibilities.”
Both proposals include a five-person board structure, an independent supervisory role, on-chain governance, and $NEO Token holder voting as a source of governance authority.
Mr. Zhang’s full statement can be viewed at the link below.
https://x.com/erikzhang/status/2043993575004975546
