Sonic Labs restructures management: personnel overhaul and a promise to restore investor trust
Major changes have occurred in the top management of the Sonic ecosystem (formerly Fantom). Sonic Labs has announced the departure of three key figures from its board of directors, whom the organization itself called the "architects of the current Sonic." These are former CEO and director Michael Kong, executive chairman David Richardson, and co-founder and CTO Andre Cronje.
The market reacted immediately: the native token S lost more than 6% on the news. This only worsened an already difficult situation — from an all-time high of $1.03 (January 2025), the asset has crashed 97.2%, currently trading around $0.028.
New leadership and shifting priorities
The position of CEO has been taken by Matt Visser, and Kostas Kourkoumelis has become COO. Their approach differs markedly from their predecessors. Instead of loud statements about a new roadmap, Visser has focused on routine but critically important work: bringing order to operations and restoring 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.
Honest admission of problems
Notably, the team has publicly acknowledged the crisis. In an address to the community, Sonic Labs directly stated: "The token is falling. Community sentiment is deteriorating. We see it and we are not going to pretend the problem doesn't exist." This level of candor is rare for crypto projects, which usually prefer to downplay negativity.
The leadership proposed viewing the current moment as "day one" of a new development phase. Instead of short-term promises, the focus is on gradual improvements over the next 100 days.
Transparency and risk control
Among the key changes, Sonic cited increased management transparency, the creation of a separate risk and compliance committee, and more open interaction with S holders. The company promised to publish more specific information about decisions being made and to abandon formal announcements without practical substance.
Technical foundation unaffected
An important positive signal: despite the personnel changes, the technical team continued 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. Technology remains the ecosystem's main asset.
Recall that in March, the Sonic team also introduced the "institutional" stablecoin USSD, indicating the existence of strategic development plans.
Expert opinion: The personnel shakeup at Sonic Labs is not panic, but a necessary and timely measure. The project, which underwent a rebranding from Fantom to Sonic, faced a classic problem: technical progress outpaced management efficiency. The new leadership is rightly focusing on restoring trust rather than on more "moon" promises. However, with the current 97% drop from the peak, the market will judge not words but concrete actions. The 100-day plan is a reasonable horizon for the first measurable results.