Sonic Labs changes course: new leadership promises to restore trust, but the S token has plummeted by 6%
The Sonic Labs team has announced a radical change in top management. Three key figures who were at the project's inception have left the board of directors: former CEO and director Michael Kong, executive chairman David Richardson, and co-founder and CTO Andre Cronje. The company called them the "architects of the current Sonic," emphasizing their fundamental role in creating the existing infrastructure of the first-layer EVM network. The market reacted instantly: the S token dropped by more than 6%.
New Team: Betting on Operational Efficiency
Matt Visser has taken the CEO position, and Costa Kurkumelis has been appointed COO. Their statement was concise but ambitious: no grand promises or "roadmaps." Instead, the focus is on bringing order within the company and restoring lost community trust. "I'm not going to promise an instant turnaround. My job is to make Sonic 1% better every day and let that effect compound," Visser stated. This is a pragmatic, albeit risky, approach in an environment where investors expect quick results.
Acknowledging Problems and Unprecedented Decline
In its address, Sonic Labs openly acknowledged the scale of the crisis for the first time. "The token is falling. Community sentiment is deteriorating. We see it and are not going to pretend the problem doesn't exist," the statement reads. The numbers speak for themselves: in January 2025, S reached an all-time high of $1.03, and it is now trading at around $0.028 — a 97.2% collapse from its peak. The new leadership proposes viewing the current moment as the "first day" of a new phase, promising gradual improvements over the next 100 days.
Transparency and Risk Control as a Foundation
Sonic cites increased management transparency, the creation of a separate risk and compliance committee, and more open interaction with S holders as key changes. The company promises to publish more specific information about decisions made and to abandon formal announcements without practical substance. This signals that the project intends to move from marketing slogans to real work with the community.
Technology Lives On: Development Continues
Despite the personnel changes, the technical team has been working without interruption. Since the beginning of 2026, developers have merged about 400 significant pull requests into the main GitHub branch, released two network updates, and continue testing version 2.2.0 in a closed testnet. The company emphasizes that technology remains the ecosystem's main asset and has developed independently of organizational changes. As a reminder, in March, the Sonic team presented the "institutional" stablecoin USSD.
My Expertise: A leadership change is a classic move for projects that have lost trust, but it rarely works instantly. A 97% drop from ATH is not just a correction but a systemic crisis of confidence. New CEO Visser will have to do more than just "make it 1% better every day"; he must radically change the project's perception. For now, the market has given him a vote of no confidence — a 6% drop following the announcement. Success will depend on whether the team can turn promises into measurable results within 100 days, rather than another series of empty statements.