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Sonic reshuffles leadership as three board members step down

Sonic reshuffles leadership as three board members step down

Andre Cronje, Michael Kong and David Richardson are leaving the board as Matt Visser becomes CEO; Cronje says he only led technical work and did not own the FTM-to-S migration, airdrop or tokenomics decisions.

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Fact Check
Both Cointelegraph and The Defiant independently confirm that Michael Kong, Andre Cronje, and David Richardson resigned from the Sonic Labs board, that Matt Visser became CEO and Kosta Kourkoumelis became COO, and that Sonic pledged stronger transparency and oversight (including a risk/compliance committee). The Defiant attributes the announcement to the official Sonic Labs X post, providing a direct primary-source chain. All named individuals and roles match the claim exactly.
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Summary

Sonic Labs said Andre Cronje, Michael Kong and David Richardson are stepping down from its board and will no longer make business decisions for the organization, with Matt Visser taking over as chief executive officer and Kosta Kourkoumelis becoming chief operating officer. The leadership overhaul follows an earlier CEO change in February 2026 after Sonic's push into U.S. capital markets. In a separate June 21 statement, Cronje said his role in the Fantom and Sonic ecosystem was limited to technical work and advising, including the design of the Sonic Gateway, and that he did not design or manage the FTM-to-S migration, the Sonic airdrop, S token emissions, incentives or other tokenomics. He also said he does not support shutting the Ethereum ERC-20 version of FTM or ending the legacy Opera network. Sonic said it is focusing on operational discipline, more transparent governance and a new risk and compliance committee rather than promising an immediate turnaround, while acknowledging that both the S token and community sentiment are down. Around publication, the S token traded near $0.028, about 10% lower over 24 hours and roughly 97% below its January 2025 all-time high of $1.03, with market capitalization near $107 million, while total value locked across Sonic DeFi protocols was about $26 million versus a peak above $1.1 billion in May 2025.

Terms & Concepts
  • Layer-1: A base blockchain network that processes and settles transactions on its own chain.
  • ERC-20: A common standard for tokens on Ethereum.
  • total value locked: The total value of assets deposited in a blockchain network's decentralized finance applications or smart contracts.