PANews reported on December 31 that NEO's two core founders clashed publicly today, fiercely exchanging views on project fund control and governance issues. Da Hongfei initiated the attack, accusing co-founder Erik Zhang of long-term personal control of the vast majority of NEO/GAS assets, violating his promise to transfer assets to a multisignature wallet, and using his financial advantage to act arbitrarily and "hijack" protocol governance. Da Hongfei stated that his previous silence was to maintain community confidence, but he now has to go public with the matter and promised to release a financial report in the first quarter of 2026, vowing to regain control of the treasury through all means.

In response, Zhang Zhengwen quickly countered, stating that the core issue lay in the financial "black box." He pointed out that all foundation assets, except for NEO/GAS, had long been controlled by Da Hongfei alone, and no auditable financial disclosures had ever been provided to the community or any third party. Zhang Zhengwen emphasized that his insistence on holding NEO/GAS was precisely for "minimum risk control," to prevent these core assets from being drawn into Da Hongfei's opaque operating structure; otherwise, the consequences would be disastrous.