Sonic’s S token fell after Andre Cronje, Michael Kong and David Richardson stepped down from the project’s board, adding a new leadership shock to a network already trading near historic lows.
Sonic Labs named Matt Visser as chief executive officer and Kosta Kourkoumelis as chief operating officer, while the three departing board members moved out of formal board roles. The change removes several of the names most closely associated with Sonic’s post-Fantom rebuild from the project’s leadership structure.
S traded near $0.03 after the announcement, down more than 5% over 24 hours. The token remains roughly 97% below its January 2025 all-time high near $1.03 and only slightly above its June low, extending one of the steepest post-cycle drawdowns among major Layer 1 rebrands.
Fantom Rebrand Faces Deeper Market Pressure
Sonic launched as the successor to Fantom, replacing the FTM narrative with a new EVM chain, the S token and a performance-focused pitch around fast settlement, developer rewards and DeFi incentives.
The market response has moved in the opposite direction. The token’s decline has erased most of the early Sonic premium, while DeFi liquidity has thinned. DeFiLlama tracked Sonic TVL near $20 million, far below the levels seen during the project’s stronger early phase.
The leadership changes also come after a long period in which Cronje’s name remained central to Sonic’s credibility with traders and builders. His exit from the board does not shut down the chain or remove the project’s technical infrastructure, but it does change the public leadership profile behind the Fantom-to-Sonic transition.
New Executive Team Takes Over Near Lows
Visser and Kourkoumelis take over while Sonic’s market data remains under heavy pressure. S traded near $0.03, with major trackers placing the token’s market capitalization around the low-nine-figure range depending on circulating-supply assumptions.
The project’s next phase now sits with a new executive structure rather than the board lineup that carried the rebrand into market. Sonic still has an active chain, live DeFi protocols and a developer incentive pitch, but the board exit lands during a period when token price, TVL and sentiment are all near the weakest levels since launch.
The confirmed status is a board-level transition, a new CEO and COO, and an S token still trading close to its all-time low after a roughly 90% yearly decline.
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