Sonic Labs Token Dips as Key Executives Resign Amidst Community Dissatisfaction

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 warns

Sonic 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.