Sonic Labs starts with a clean slate: leadership change and a promise to restore trust
The Sonic Labs team has announced significant personnel changes in its top management. The market reacted immediately: the native token S dropped by more than 6% following the news release. This is a natural response to the shake-up in the project's management core.
Three key figures have left the board of directors of the company developing the EVM-compatible Layer 1 network: former CEO and director Michael Kong, executive chairman David Richardson, and co-founder and CTO Andre Cronje. In an official statement, they were called the "architects of the current Sonic," emphasizing that these specialists laid the foundation for the project's current architecture.
New CEO and COO: A Course for Recovery
The position of CEO has been taken by Matt Visser, while Costa Kourkoulis has become the Chief Operating Officer (COO). The new leadership immediately stated that their priority is not loud roadmap announcements, but restoring order in operational activities and, most importantly, rebuilding 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 commented.
The team acknowledged the existence of systemic problems. In an address to Sonic Labs token holders, it directly pointed to the deterioration of market indicators and sentiment: "The token is falling. Community sentiment is worsening. We see this and are not going to pretend the problem doesn't exist." Since the all-time high in January 2025 at $1.03, the asset is currently trading around $0.028 — a crash of 97.2%.
100-Day Plan and Focus on Transparency
The management proposed viewing the current moment as the "first day" of a new stage of development. Instead of short-term promises, the team intends to focus on gradual improvements over the next 100 days. Key changes include increasing management transparency, creating a separate risk and compliance committee, and more open interaction with S holders. The company promised to publish more specific information about decisions made and to abandon formal announcements without practical content.
Technical development did not stop even amid the personnel changes. 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 continued to develop independently of organizational changes.
My expert opinion: A change in leadership is a classic signal of a crisis, but acknowledging the problems and focusing on operational efficiency rather than marketing promises is a mature step. However, rebuilding trust after a 97% drop will require not 100 days, but months of consistent work. The market will be waiting not for words, but for real metrics: growth in TVL, developer activity, and, of course, stabilization of the token price.