NeoPod hosted its first community AMA on June 10, with NNT writer and editor Dylan Grabowski, in an extended text-based Discord session about the current state of Neo, the ongoing governance dispute between the co-founders, and what the ecosystem needs to move forward.
The event marks a new chapter for the NeoPod 2.0 refresh, which relaunched earlier this year with a focus on high-quality content creation and deeper community engagement. Grabowski, who has been with NNT since 2018 and also hosts The Smart Economy Podcast and is a voting member of GrantShares and Neo Council, was candid during the session.
A broken ecosystem, but an ecosystem that is still fighting
Grabowski gave an unvarnished assessment of where Neo stands. He described a project that now faces a public feud between its two co-founders, reduced activity in the chain, and a community pulled in different directions.
“Neo has a treasury of more than $400 million, and both founders accuse each other of misconduct,” Grabowski said. “Frankly, it’s a horrible sight.”
But he was quick to refute the pessimism, pointing to Neo’s development talent, active developer communities, and a base layer that continues to build. He pointed to community projects including World of Elements, Neo Red Pill, NeoIgnite and Raijin Protocol, along with content creators producing material in English, Indonesian, Spanish, Portuguese and Arabic.
He had particular praise for Neo’s core developers, specifically mentioning Jimmy, Alibaba, Anna, Vitor, Roman, Igor and Shargon:
“Neo core developers are legitimately some of the smartest people I’ve ever met in my life. Without their passion and dedication, Neo would have stopped functioning years ago.”
He noted that when neither founder was actively leading, the core team independently figured out what to focus on and kept the project moving forward.
‘Team Neo’ – a reset of the board
Regarding the dispute between Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang, Grabowski firmly positioned himself as “Team Neo” rather than aligning himself with one of the founders.
“I have no ‘side’ in this discussion, only what’s best for users, builders and the ecosystem,” he said. His position is formalized in a board alignment proposal, submitted as a GitHub pull request, which outlines two central recommendations: a new board of directors made up largely of experienced outsiders, and a consolidated treasury with multiple signatures.
Grabowski argued that the current arrangement, where each founder controls signing access to about half of Neo’s assets, is unsustainable:
“This is not how a successful blockchain ecosystem is managed.”
He recognized that existing ecosystem leaders may carry too much history and potential blind spots to fill governance roles, and advocated for outsiders who can provide a new perspective.
Stablecoins, RWAs and AI agents as the way forward
Grabowski outlined a strategic vision centered on two pillars: stablecoins and real assets in the short term, and AI agents for longer-term relevance.
He revealed that in October 2023, he gave a personal presentation to Da, Neo Global Development, the Neo Foundation and the Neo Community in Hong Kong, presenting the onboarding of USDC and USDT and wooing RWA issuers.
“Imagine that if we had seriously gone after the issuers of Tether/Circle and RWA back then, the state of Neo would certainly be different than it is today,” he said.
Citing data from rwa.xyz, he noted that 263.83 million wallets currently hold stablecoins in a $300 billion market, while 900,000 wallets hold RWAs worth $360 billion.
“Stablecoins and RWAs are not sexy. They won’t bring millions of users to Neo. But they will anchor capital in our chain and bring long-term partners.”
As for AI agents, Grabowski pointed to a future where autonomous agents conduct on-chain transactions more often than humans, arguing that crypto’s permissionless infrastructure makes it a natural solution for agents who lack the identity documentation required for traditional financial rails. He noted that Neo’s SpoonOS is already targeting this industry.
The decline of Flamingo
Grabowski turned to Flamingo Finance, which previously laid off all of its staff in 2026 and made public the status of its FUSD debt in April.
“Looking back at Neo’s history, dropping Flamingo will likely be one of the biggest dents to the ecosystem’s track record,” he said.
Neo X is gaining ground
Grabowski acknowledged a shift in his views on Neo X adoption. Four months earlier, he said he would have argued that N3 was the chain everyone would use. Current data tells a different story: Neo
He attributed the uptick to the new Legacy to Neo X migration window, growing exchange support for Neo Still, he expressed caution, noting that Neo had previously seen the assumption that developers would come simply because the technology was available backfire during the N3 era.
The ideal outcome, he said, is competition between the two chains.
“If the builders of both chains become hungry to win over the others, then we all win,” he said.
Despite the challenges, Grabowski closed on an optimistic note, pointing to blockchain’s institutional adoption, the power of building during bear markets and the resilience of Neo’s community as reasons for confidence.
“A blockchain ecosystem is only doomed to failure if no one wants to keep fighting,” he said. “And Neo, despite its shortcomings, still has a community that continues to fight for our future.”
The entire AMA took place on the NeoPod Discord server.