The three founding board members built Sonic Labs, formerly the Fantom Foundation, from the ground up. Cronje served as chief technology officer and is known across DeFi for creating Yearn Finance. Kong ran the Fantom Foundation as CEO. Richardson held the role of executive chairman.
Sonic Labs confirmed the departures in an official statement shared on X. The company said the trio remains invested in Sonic’s success but will no longer make business decisions for the organization.
New Leadership Takes Over
Matt Visser steps in as the new CEO. Kosta Kourkoumelis takes the role of chief operating officer. Visser set expectations low and specific.
“I am not here to promise an instant turnaround,” Visser said. “I am here to make Sonic 1% better every single day and let that compound.”
Sonic Labs pledged a dedicated risk and compliance committee, public decision-making, and fewer announcements without substance. The company set up a disclosure email for holder concerns.
Token Performance Reflects the Pressure
The S token trades between $0.028 and $0.031, a decline of roughly 97% from its January 2025 all-time high near $1.03. The token fell another 5% in the 24 hours after the board announcement.
Total value locked on Sonic dropped from a May 2025 peak of $1.14 billion to about $20 million, according to Defillama data. That marks a 98% collapse in locked capital on the network.
Sonic Labs did not soften the numbers. “The token is down. Community sentiment is down. We see both clearly, we are not spinning it,” the company said.
Cronje Points to Flying Tulip
Cronje addressed his exit on X, saying his focus for the past 18 months has centered on Flying Tulip, a DeFi platform he built offering real-yield stablecoin products. He said Flying Tulip has scaled to roughly $70 million in TVL across three systems, earning near 16% APY on USDC and USDT on Ethereum and about 8% on Sonic.
He clarified he was never Fantom’s founder, only its original technical architect, and said he opposes shutting down the legacy Opera network.
A Familiar Pattern
Cronje stepped back from crypto in March 2022, citing regulatory pressure from the SEC and burnout, before returning to build Sonic’s technical architecture. His 2026 exit follows that same arc: step back from a high-profile project, redirect energy into an independent building.
What it means for traders: Sonic’s governance reset trades founder visibility for operational discipline, while Cronje’s attention now sits with Flying Tulip’s yield products rather than the S token’s recovery.
