Neo Releases $11 Million From Cold Wallet to Fund Itself Through 2020

The Neo Foundation released more than $11 million in NEO from locked accounts to cover costs for 2020.

The Neo Foundation announced on March 25 that they have released the necessary funds to continue operating for the 2020 Fiscal Year (FY). A total of 1,660,865 NEO worth approximately $11 million was released, with 27,800,303 NEO ($190 million) still remaining.

According to its blog post, the Neo whitepaper allows the Foundation to sell its stake of NEO to “support Neo’s technological development, ecosystem growth, community expansion.”

The transaction ID published by the foundation reveals that the tokens were sent to an address that contains over 14.6 million NEO, worth $100 million. The announcement reads that the tokens were transferred from the “locked account to the current account,” which would imply that the foundation has an even deeper funding pool than the one contained in the first wallet.

While the sparse transaction history seems to exclude the possibility that it is an exchange address, it could also be the exchange’s cold wallet. Neo Foundation representatives did not immediately answer Cointelegraph’s inquiries on the matter.

The foundation also revealed that it completed the financial review for 2019, with an annual report to be “released soon” to the community.

Background on Neo

Neo, originally known as AntShares, is a blockchain platform based on BFT, a distributed Proof of Stake (dPoS) consensus algorithm.

While it also supports tokens, the platform appears to be shifting its focus toward mainstream applications. This is also seen in its programming environment, which supports traditional languages such as C++ and JavaScript, as opposed to custom languages like Solidity.

The project hasn’t often been in the spotlight recently, as it focuses on relaunching its blockchain for Neo 3.0. In early 2019, roadmap predictions placed its launch in Q2 2020.

NEO co-founder, Da Hongfei, focused on the importance of blockchain at Blockshow Asia in improving the Internet’s data privacy, suggesting that this a potential development direction for Neo.

In September, Neo joined Microsoft’s .NET Foundation as the first blockchain member.