Neo founder's split: Da Hongfei is accused of failing to fulfill financial disclosure commitments, while Erik is accused of monopolizing the foundation's financial power

Neo co-founder and core developer Erik Zhang accused NEO founder Da Hongfei of failing to fulfill financial disclosure commitments. Erik Zhang stated that, according to a clear agreement reached during a recent phone call, starting from January 1, 2026, Da Hongfei will focus on the operation and development of NeoX and SpoonOS, and will no longer participate in any matters related to the Neo mainnet. He called for Da Hongfei to immediately provide the community with a complete and verifiable financial report, including a detailed list of all assets managed by the Neo Foundation (NF) and a breakdown of all expenditures, to address the community's long-standing reasonable concerns regarding transparency and governance.

NEO founder Da Hongfei responded by stating that Erik Zhang controls the vast majority of Neo funds, influences consensus node voting, and is unhesitatingly hijacking the protocol at the expense of the community and token holders. He had urged Erik to transfer the NEO/GAS tokens from his personal custody to the foundation's multi-signature address—while he himself still retains the identity of a key holder. However, Erik Zhang always finds excuses to delay this process.