TheBlock
Andre Cronje, Michael Kong and David Richardson resigned from the Sonic Labs board on Friday as part of a leadership overhaul that also named Matt Visser as CEO and Kosta Kourkoumelis as COO. The S token traded near $0.028 at publication, down roughly 10% over 24 hours and about 97% below its $1.03 all-time high set in January 2025, with market cap near $107 million. Total value locked across Sonic's DeFi protocols sat at about $26 million, down from a peak above $1.1 billion in May 2025 per DefiLlama.
Why it matters
The departure of all three senior board members at once removes the technical, operational and strategic leadership that anchored Sonic's narrative through the Fantom-to-Sonic migration. Cronje's accompanying statement sought to distance himself from the token-economics design, the FTM-to-S migration and the decision to wind down the legacy Opera network, while recasting his prior use of "co-founder" as a description of his technical role rather than a corporate claim. That framing matters for anyone reading the resignations as accountability — it suggests the technical architect is walking away from a protocol whose economic structure he says he did not design.
Market impact
This is Sonic's second leadership reset in nine months after CEO Mitchell Demeter and business head Evan Owens resigned in February 2026, following a $150M U.S. capital-markets proposal passed last year. New CEO Visser said his first focus is operational discipline and rebuilding trust rather than a roadmap reveal, explicitly not promising an instant turnaround, while Sonic Labs acknowledged token and community sentiment are both down and is standing up a risk and compliance committee. CoinGecko co-founder Bobby Ong publicly noted the token's decline and suggested the market may not have bottomed. Cronje said his attention is now on Flying Tulip, which raised $200M at a $1B FDV in August 2025 and reports about $70M in TVL across three deployments — capital and engineering attention that is no longer landing on Sonic.
Frequently asked questions
-
Who resigned from the Sonic Labs board?
Andre Cronje, Michael Kong and David Richardson all resigned on Friday, with Matt Visser named CEO and Kosta Kourkoumelis COO as part of a leadership overhaul.
-
How far below its peak is the S token trading?
S traded near $0.028 at publication, down roughly 10% over 24 hours and about 97% below the $1.03 all-time high it set in January 2025, putting market cap near $107 million.
-
How much TVL has Sonic's DeFi ecosystem lost?
Total value locked across Sonic's DeFi protocols sat at about $26 million per DefiLlama, down from a peak above $1.1 billion in May 2025.
-
Did Cronje design the S token's economics?
In a statement on his website, Cronje said he led Sonic's technical work including the Sonic Gateway design, but did not design or execute the FTM-to-S migration, was not the decision owner for token emissions and incentive structure, and did not support winding down the legacy Opera network.
-
What is Andre Cronje focused on now?
Cronje said his focus is Flying Tulip, his DeFi exchange, which raised $200 million at a $1 billion fully diluted valuation in August 2025 and reports roughly $70 million in TVL across three deployments.
Crypto News
WuBlockchain
Crypto Rank News
CoinDesk
CoinTelegraph