Crypto & Web3·Jun 20, 2026

S token drops 5% as 3 former execs resign from Sonic Labs board

Andre Cronje, Michael Kong and David Richardson have stepped down from the Sonic Labs board, while Matt Visser has been appointed as Sonic Labs' new CEO, replacing Mitchell Demeter who resigned in February.

Cointelegraph2 min readVerified
S token drops 5% as 3 former execs resign from Sonic Labs board
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The gist
5-point summary · 1 min

Andre Cronje, Michael Kong and David Richardson have stepped down from the Sonic Labs board, while Matt Visser has been appointed as Sonic Labs' new CEO, replacing Mitchell Demeter who resigned in February.

  • The S token, the native utility asset behind the Sonic blockchain, dipped on Friday after Sonic Labs announced the resignation of three former executives from its board.
  • We see both clearly, we are not spinning it, and we are not asking anyone to pretend otherwise,” said Sonic Labs.
  • Related: Ethereum faces core development funding crisis, former contributor warnsSonic Labs, the research and development organization behind the Sonic EVM-compatible layer-1 blockchain, is the successor to the Fantom Foundation, which was founded in 2018.
  • Its rebrand from Fantom to Sonic introduced a major structural and technical upgrade to the network as it replaced its legacy Fantom Opera network.
  • The leadership shuffle comes just days after Ethereum Foundation co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang announced that she had stepped down on Thursday, adding to a list of 19 layoffs and departures from the foundation this year.
5%97%January 2025
In this article

The S token, the native utility asset behind the Sonic blockchain, dipped on Friday after Sonic Labs announced the resignation of three former executives from its board. The S token fell to 0.031, down 5% over 24 hours. The resignations include Michael Kong, a former CEO of the Fantom Foundation and director at Sonic Labs; David Richardson, who served as executive chairman of Sonic Labs; and Andre Cronje, who previously served as its chief technology officer. Statement from Andre Cronje about his resignation from the board. Source: Andre Cronje“These are the people who built what Sonic is today. They remain invested in Sonic’s success and are handing off their responsibilities the right way, in full. From here, they will no longer make business decisions for the organization,” Sonic Labs said as it announced Matt Visser as its new CEO and Kosta Kourkoumelis as chief operating officer.Sonic Labs is overhauling its leadership and governance structure as it attempts to address growing community dissatisfaction and a prolonged decline in its S token, which has fallen 97% since launching in January 2025 as part of a network upgrade. “We are not going to open with a victory lap. The token is down. Community sentiment is down. We see both clearly, we are not spinning it, and we are not asking anyone to pretend otherwise,” said Sonic Labs. Related: Ethereum faces core development funding crisis, former contributor warnsSonic Labs, the research and development organization behind the Sonic EVM-compatible layer-1 blockchain, is the successor to the Fantom Foundation, which was founded in 2018. The blockchain is focused on speed, claiming to provide 10,000 transactions per second and subsecond finality. Its rebrand from Fantom to Sonic introduced a major structural and technical upgrade to the network as it replaced its legacy Fantom Opera network. Sonic Labs said the leadership change will also come with a commitment to more transparent governance, clear communication about project updates, and the creation of a dedicated risk and compliance committee. The leadership shuffle comes just days after Ethereum Foundation co-executive director Hsiao-Wei Wang announced that she had stepped down on Thursday, adding to a list of 19 layoffs and departures from the foundation this year. Magazine: The end of anon? AI could unmask crypto’s hidden identitiesCointelegraph is committed to independent, transparent journalism. This news article is produced in accordance with Cointelegraph’s Editorial Policy and aims to provide accurate and timely information. Readers are encouraged to verify information independently.

Integrity note  ·  Xela does not rewrite or paraphrase article content. The excerpt above is the source publication's own words, sanitized for display. For the full piece — including any quotes, charts, or images — read it at Cointelegraph. Xela's rewritten version is off for this story, so there's no editorial angle attached — you're getting the source's reporting unfiltered. When the rewrite is on, we add a What this means block underneath with the operator/trader takeaway.

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