Key Takeaways
- Hongfei pioneered blockchain adoption in China, co-founding NEO and Onchain.
- He is actively looking for innovative systems and technologies for adoption for the NEO and Onchain.
- He is exploring the potential of ZK and AI technologies in the NEO ecosystem and opportunities for cross-chain payment solutions.
Before Ethereum had a Chinese rival, Da Hongfei was already laying the groundwork for Asia’s smart economy, as the co-founder of NEO, a blockchain technology for creating dApps (Decentralized Applications) with smart contracts.
He is also the founder and CEO of Onchain. This company offers blockchain solutions, highlighting its presence in the crypto space while fostering the growth of blockchain technologies in Asia.
His effort to impact the history of China’s blockchain story gained him prominence as one of China’s pioneers of blockchain technologies.
Who is Da Hongfei? History and Crypto Acceptance
From 1997 to 2001, he earned a Bachelor’s degree in Arts in Technology and English at the South China University of Technology, which equipped him to bridge the gap between communication and technology.
In 2005, he joined IntPass Consulting Shanghai as a board member and CEO for eight years, gaining valuable insights into emerging technologies and consultancy, which later helped his career in the blockchain space.
In 2011, he discovered Bitcoin and immediately recognized the potential of this digital asset to evolve the traditional finance system in the years to come.
He played a key role in promoting Bitcoin in China and educating local Bitcoin communities at an early age. His effort became known as it helped build the blockchain foundation in China.
Antshares Rebrands to NEO and Onchain Success
Following a strong desire to engage in the blockchain space, Hongfei attended the Bitcoin Conference in Shanghai in 2014, where he met Erik Zhang, who co-founded Antshares, a blockchain technology designed for building dApps.
In 2017, Antshares was rebranded to NEO to avoid confusion with other brand names at the time, while highlighting its broader vision for a smart economy rivaling Ethereum as the next Chinese Ethereum.
NEO’s design architecture was built on:
- Delegated Byzantine Fault Tolerance (dBFT) consensus mechanism, which supports smart contracts, digital assets, and digital identity while enabling
- Faster and cheaper transactions at 1,000 TPS compared with Ethereum’s 15 TPS.
- NEO’s design helped blockchain developers to build and ship projects with ease, making it more accessible.
Also, in 2014, Hongfei and Zhang founded Onchain, a blockchain company focused on delivering enterprise solutions to businesses and institutions that want to leverage the blockchain for payment and cross-chain interoperability.
Onchain’s success led to:
- Partnerships with Microsoft China and Alibaba developed enterprise solutions
- Joined Hyperledger as the first Chinese company
His success with NEO and Onchain opened up opportunities for him to advocate for blockchain regulation in China while working with government officials to fight fraudulent ICO activities in the 2017 ICO boom.
His effort has remained noticeable despite the ban on ICOs and crypto exchanges in China.
Da Hongfei’s Net Worth in 2025
While there are no definite figures or records of Hongfei’s network in 2025, he is estimated to be worth over $100 million based on the following:
- NEO ecosystem growth and market share of $450M marketcap
- Onchain success, partnerships, and enterprise blockchain services
Hongfei’s Active Blockchain Participation
Source – Hongfei on X
He is actively focused on integrating AI and zero-knowledge (ZK) blockchain infrastructures into the NEO and Onchain. His recent X post highlighted the following on the SpoonOS framework:
- SpoonOS is a new developer framework for building AI-powered agents on the NEO blockchain
- The SpoonOS platform would allow building an AI agent that performs arbitrage between DEXs on NEO and CEXs
- $2M funds was announced to support the development of SpoonOS
- Exploring other opportunities to grow the NEO ecosystem and adoption in regions such as Africa
He has participated in public speaking events, including NEO DevCon 2018 and Consensus 2019.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Da Hongfei’s long-term vision is to bridge public and private blockchains through NEOX. He is also focused on helping the Chinese crypto communities while exploring new blockchain infrastructures, such as AI and ZK blockchain in the NEO and Onchain ecosystem.
His approach towards providing solutions and adapting to emerging blockchain technologies distinguishes him from other blockchain leaders.
FAQs
Da Hongfei Net Worth
He is estimated to be worth $100M based on NEO and Onchain market share.
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