Andre Cronje and two fellow founders have resigned from the Sonic Labs board, the company confirmed, as the S token trades near record lows. Matt Visser becomes the second chief executive in nine months.
Michael Kong and David Richardson stepped down alongside Cronje. The reshuffle lands while S sits about 91% below its January 2025 peak, reviving questions over whether it has bottomed.
Cronje and Cofounders Hand the Board to Visser
Sonic Labs framed the exits as an orderly handover. Kong, Cronje, and Richardson keep their stakes but will no longer make business decisions, per the team's announcement.
The change caps a turbulent year in the C-suite. Sonic named Mitchell Demeter CEO last September to court institutional money, then lost him by February, leaving the founding board to run operations.
Cronje built much of decentralized finance (DeFi) and left those projects abruptly in 2022. He has lately turned to Flying Tulip, a new exchange he is raising money to build.
The market reaction has been harsh. S recently traded around $0.029, down about 6% in 24 hours and roughly 37% over the past month. It has fallen close to 91% this year.
The slide has cut Sonic's value to about $111 million, ranking it near 250th. The token sits just above the record low it set on June 6, far below its $1.03 high from January 2025.
The capital flight runs deeper than price. Sonic, which grew from Fantom's rebrand to Sonic, once hit $1 billion TVL within months of launch.
Total value locked has since collapsed to about $18 million, DefiLlama shows. That is a drop of roughly 98% from a 2025 peak above $1.1 billion.
Follow us on X to get the latest news as it happens
Still, not everyone accepted the framing. Critics argue that stepping back during a downturn erodes trust.
Sonic insists its survival does not hinge on the token. The team says it carries no venture capital unlocks and funds development from a diversified treasury, giving it runway regardless of price.
Management also points to steady output, claiming 400 pull requests merged this year, two releases shipped, and a private testnet running for version 2.2.0.