Who Is Da Hongfei? Co-Founder of the Neo Blockchain

Da Hongfei is the co-founder of the Neo blockchain, which he started with Erik Zhang in 2014 under the name Antshares. Neo's community press called him CEO of Neo Global Development (NGD) in March 2026 and co-chair of the Neo Foundation in April. By then he and Zhang were arguing in public over governance and financial oversight.

In Neo's on-chain registry, 15 of the 39 council candidates carried a Neo Foundation or NGD label at the early-November close. Four of them held council seats with about 27% of all votes cast, and three of those four were among the seven nodes that produce Neo's blocks. A label is what a candidate says about itself, though, and the registry doesn't show who holds each key.

How Many Neo Council Seats Carry a Neo Foundation or NGD Label?

NEO holders elect a 21-seat council that sets the network's parameters. Neo's governance docs say its seven most-voted members also serve as consensus nodes, which propose and produce blocks.

Any candidate can attach a name and a website to its key in a public registry. The contract's instructions on GitHubshow that only the candidate's own signature can set them.

Fifteen of the 39 candidates carried a label reading NF or NGD with a number, the usual short forms for the Neo Foundation and Neo Global Development. The counts below come from Neo's on-chain record at the last block before the early-November close.

So the most-voted seat and two more of the seven block producers carried those labels, and those three drew about 45% of the votes behind all seven nodes.

That's where the evidence stops. If you vote with your NEO, the chain shows you a candidate's chosen name and its votes, but not the person who signs for its key. So you can't read these seats as Da Hongfei's, Zhang's or anyone else's.

Under three in ten NEO voted for any candidate at all, and Phemex's explainer on what Neo is covers that full count.

Who Founded Neo?

Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang are Neo's two founders, and by its own history page the project was the first public smart contract platform in crypto to come out of China. The code reached GitHub in July 2015 and the MainNet went live in October 2016. Antshares became Neo in 2017, the year it shipped Smart Contracts 2.0.

Neo raised its early money from seed investors and a token sale, an ICO, which differs from an IEO in that the project runs the sale itself.

Neo later paid that money back. Its history page calls Neo "the first and only token sale to return all the original raised funds to its participants" once the project could sustain itself. In a March 2026 AMA, Da Hongfei called the 2017 giveback a "first of its kind in blockchain history". It repaid seed and ICO investors without asking for their tokens back.

Da Hongfei's Career, From Antshares to N3

As Neo's own history tells it, Da Hongfei's public story starts at the 2014 founding. Over the following years the project's Shanghai operation grew from fewer than a dozen people to more than 50. Neo's leadership also began paying NEO token rewards to outside groups that helped the platform grow.

The biggest change came with N3, an upgrade that began as a project in June 2018 and launched in 2021. It gave NEO holders a vote on a council that governs the chain and runs its consensus nodes, the same council the table above counts.

A Neo community news site gave Da Hongfei two titles in 2026. It called him "Neo co-founder and CEO of Neo Global Development" in March and "founder and co-chair of the Neo Foundation" in April.

Neo's history page says the foundation sets the project's overall goals and funds the groups that build it. In the March AMA Da Hongfei described Hong Kong, NGD's operating base, as a place where regulators are easy to reach.

That AMA was his first public appearance after Neo's FY2025 financial report, which came out on 3 March and which he called a "preview". He owned the past plainly. "I take full responsibility for the things that we should have done better," he said, naming the delayed governance reform and the lack of communication with the community.

Da Hongfei also defended a new direction for Neo X, Neo's Ethereum-compatible sidechain, built around AI agents. "Competing on performance or competing on new features are a dead end," he said, arguing that Neo had to find ground the bigger chains don't already hold.

What Is the Dispute Between Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang?

In 2026 the dispute turned on who should oversee Neo's treasury and who should set its rules. Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang met in Hong Kong on 26 January 2026 to settle their disagreements over governance and financial oversight. A Neo community news report said the meeting "ended without reconciliation".

Zhang said all three of his core requests were rejected, among them verifiable financial oversight and access to Neo's official communication channels. He then called on Da Hongfei to step down from his leadership roles in the Neo ecosystem.

Da Hongfei disputed that account. He offered what he called "limited cooperation", with each side working on its own where their visions split. The oversight request, he said, was an attempt to centralize authority. He also said Zhang would get publishing access to Neo's website and social media. NGD would start buying NEO and GAS, he added, and disclose the addresses afterwards.

Da Hongfei's January snapshot put the Neo Foundation's treasury at about $205 million and NGD's at about $227 million. Of the foundation's share, $174 million was NEO and GAS in single-signature wallets. That's the plainest kind of non-custodial wallet, where one private key can move the funds.

Zhang wanted the wallet addresses published. "In crypto, numbers without addresses are meaningless," he said.

By April, Da Hongfei was blaming himself for the deadlock. "Indecision on my part is the biggest reason why Neo's governance has been paralyzed in recent years," he said. He dated his split with Zhang back "quite many years". He also said he hadn't acted on it decisively.

What Did Da Hongfei Propose in 2026?

In 2026 Da Hongfei proposed a new structure for Neo's governance and for the tokens its two bodies hold. In March he called governance reform "my biggest KPI this year 2026". He set a goal of moving all token custody from single-signature wallets to multisig wallets, which need several keys to sign, by the end of 2026.

In an April 2026 AMA, Da Hongfei discussed the proposal, which set out five measures.

The first concrete step would be a lock. Da Hongfei set a one-to-three month timeline to move NEO and GAS held by the foundation and NGD into a publicly disclosed multisig lock address, contingent on community consensus. The tokens would stay there with no withdrawals or sales until a Giveback II upgrade went live.

Ordinary crypto vesting and cliffs release tokens on dates set in advance, and this lock would open on an event. It's also a step you could check yourself, since a disclosed address shows its balance to anyone.

By the AMA's write-up, Neo's FY2025 report put the two bodies' holdings at 41 million NEO and 40 million GAS, with 86% in single-signature wallets.

Da Hongfei was careful about what the document was. "This is still a proposal proposed by me and by NGD. It's not a plan yet, and it's not a promise," he said. Parts of it needed Zhang's cooperation, the lock above all. By the same account, Zhang objected to parts of the plan, among them the Cayman move and the board exclusion.

Can You Trade NEO on Phemex?

If you're looking for NEO itself, it has no live perpetual on Phemex. Its USDT futures closed on 13 August 2026 after a notice dated three days earlier. Its spot pair came off in October 2023, and the older NEO/USD contract no longer trades either.

You can still trade futures on other markets there, from Bitcoin to stock perpetuals. Futures use leverage, and a leveraged position is closed automatically if losses reach its margin.

Frequently Asked Questions About Da Hongfei

What is Neo Global Development?

NGD is one of the main groups that work on Neo, alongside the Neo Foundation and the core developers, according to Neo's own history page. A March 2026 report on a Neo community news site named Da Hongfei as its CEO.

Did Neo return its token sale funds?

Yes, by Neo's own account. It says it handed back all the money its token sale raised once the project could pay its own way. Da Hongfei has said the 2017 giveback repaid seed and ICO investors, who kept their tokens.

Who is Erik Zhang?

Erik Zhang is Neo's other co-founder. After their January 2026 meeting, a Neo community news report said he would keep leading development of Neo v4.0. He had also called on Da Hongfei to give up his leadership roles.

Is Da Hongfei leaving Neo?

In April 2026 he said he wasn't. The proposal, he said, was about removing Neo's structural dependence on him. "I'm not leaving the community, I'm not leaving the project," he said.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and is not financial advice. Cryptocurrency trading involves substantial risk. Always do your own research before making investment decisions.