Da Hongfei is a Chinese technology entrepreneur best known as a co-founder of NEO, a public blockchain platform for smart contracts and decentralized applications, formerly known as AntShares, which rebranded in 2017. He also co-founded Onchain, an enterprise blockchain company, and has advised the Chinese government on blockchain policy.
Who Is Da Hongfei?
Da Hongfei studied at the South China University of Technology in Guangdong Province, China, from 1997 to 2001, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Technology and English. He then worked at IntPass Consulting in Shanghai from 2005 to 2013, serving as a board member and eventually CEO of the company.
Hongfei discovered Bitcoin in 2011 while still at IntPass Consulting and began actively promoting Bitcoin adoption in China at a time when the country had little in the way of an organized Bitcoin community. He became a recognized figure in that early community as it grew over the following years, and that experience led him to conclude that a new blockchain, built differently from Bitcoin, could better support broader application development.
For profiles of other builders shaping the Web3 industry, visit our crypto personalities page.
Da Hongfei’s Career and Contributions
In January 2014, Hongfei announced AntShares, a blockchain platform for building decentralized applications, with the project launching the following month. He co-founded the project alongside Erik Zhang, who later became NEO’s Chief Technology Officer, and the two also co-founded Onchain that same year. In June 2017, AntShares rebranded to NEO, adopting a “smart economy” framing centered on combining digital assets, digital identity, and smart contracts.
NEO uses a dual-token model, which is NEO for governance and network participation and GAS as the utility token for paying transaction and smart contract execution fees. Its consensus mechanism, delegated Byzantine fault tolerance (dBFT), was introduced following an April 2016 white paper and was designed to provide faster, more deterministic transaction finality than proof-of-work systems.
For context, NEO could process up to 1,000 transactions per second, compared to Ethereum’s roughly 15 at the time dBFT was introduced, though throughput comparisons across blockchains have shifted significantly since then as both networks have evolved. NEO later underwent a major upgrade known as NEO N3, which introduced a revised architecture for fees, governance, and native platform features.
Onchain built a product called DNA, or Distributed Networks Architecture, aimed at helping businesses integrate blockchain technology into existing processes and enabling interoperability across different blockchain systems. Onchain became the first China-based blockchain project to join Hyperledger, and the company also formed enterprise partnerships with Microsoft China and Alibaba.
Notably, Hongfei played a role in China’s response to the 2017 ICO boom, reportedly being contacted by government officials ahead of the country’s September 2017 ban on ICOs and cryptocurrency exchanges, and providing consultancy input intended to limit the ban’s impact on China’s broader blockchain development ambitions.
Da Hongfei’s Views and Positions
Hongfei has consistently framed NEO around the idea of a “smart economy,” in which digital assets, digital identity, and smart contracts work together to support both consumer and enterprise applications. He has emphasized long-term sustainability and interoperability over short-term speculative gains and has advocated for gradual, government-compatible adoption rather than adoption that bypasses regulatory engagement.
More recently, Hongfei has focused on integrating artificial intelligence and zero-knowledge technology into the NEO ecosystem. He has publicly discussed SpoonOS, a developer framework for building AI-powered agents on NEO, including agents designed to perform arbitrage between decentralized and centralized exchanges, and announced $2 million in funding to support its development.
Readers interested in how AI and blockchain are converging more broadly can find context in our guide on artificial intelligence and crypto.
Da Hongfei’s Net Worth in 2026
Da Hongfei’s net worth is estimated at $100 million based primarily on his association with NEO’s ecosystem value and Onchain’s enterprise business, with NEO’s market capitalization as a reference point, alongside Onchain’s revenue from management and performance fees tied to its enterprise blockchain services.
Since Hongfei’s actual personal token holdings and equity stakes are not public, this figure should be treated as an estimate derived from his affiliated projects rather than a confirmed personal net worth.
Frequently Asked Questions
Need a refresher? Here are the questions readers most often ask about Da Hongfei.
Who is Da Hongfei?
Da Hongfei is a Chinese technology entrepreneur best known as a co-founder of NEO, a smart-contract blockchain platform that began as AntShares in 2014 and rebranded in 2017. He also co-founded Onchain, an enterprise blockchain company, and has been involved in shaping China’s approach to blockchain regulation.
What is Da Hongfei’s net worth?
Da Hongfei’s net worth is estimated at $100 million, based on his association with NEO’s ecosystem and Onchain’s enterprise business. No independently verified figure exists, since Hongfei has not publicly disclosed his personal holdings.
What is NEO and how is it different from Ethereum?
NEO is a public blockchain platform for smart contracts and decentralized applications, using a dual-token model with NEO for governance and GAS for transaction fees. It uses a delegated Byzantine fault tolerance consensus mechanism intended to provide faster, more deterministic transaction finality than Ethereum’s original proof-of-work design, and supports smart contracts written in multiple programming languages rather than requiring a single language, as in Ethereum’s Solidity.
What is Onchain?
Onchain is an enterprise blockchain company co-founded by Da Hongfei and Erik Zhang in 2014, built to provide blockchain-based solutions for businesses and institutions separately from NEO’s public network. Onchain developed a product called DNA, or Distributed Network Architecture, and became the first China-based blockchain project to join Hyperledger.
Did Da Hongfei help shape China’s crypto regulations?
Hongfei has been involved in consulting with Chinese government officials on blockchain policy, including in the lead-up to China’s September 2017 ban on ICOs and cryptocurrency exchanges. Reports describe him as having been contacted by officials ahead of that ban, though the full extent of his influence on the final policy has not been independently detailed.
