Key Highlights
- Andre Cronje stepped down from the Sonic Labs board and is no longer involved in business decisions.
- He clarified his role was mainly technical, focusing on building systems, not making token or company decisions.
- Sonic Labs is handing control to a new executive team as part of a governance and leadership reset.
Andre Cronje, widely known as the godfather of DeFi, confirmed today that he is stepping down from Sonic Labs, alongside two other top executives, Michael Kong and David Richardson.
Sonic Labs first announced the move on X, describing it as a part of broader governance transition within the Sonic ecosystem, the Layer 1 blockchain network that emerged from the Fantom project launched in 2018.
Andre Cronje wrote on X, “Sonic announced that I am resigning from its board. I wish the new team well.” In a separate statement, he clarified his role at Fantom and Sonic Labs.
Cronje clarifies his role in the project
According to him, his job in the project was mostly technical, not business-related. He said he was focused on building systems, not making company or token decisions. He explained that he first joined the Fantom project in 2018 as a technical advisor. By then, the company was already operational. He was not a part of the original creation of the company or its early token launch. He then became a director in December 2022, several years after the project had been launched.
Cronje said that he was involved in building the core technology behind the network. He helped design the system that made Fantom work and later worked on Sonic’s new structure, including tools like Sonic Gateway. In short, he was one of the main people building how the blockchain actually runs under the hood. He made it clear that this is different from running the business side of the project.
He said people should not mix up “building the technology” with “controlling the company.” According to him, even though he was involved in leadership discussions, that does not mean he made all the decisions people are talking about today. He explained that being aware of decisions is not the same as being the one who made them or approved them.
Cronje also responded to some of the criticism from the community. He said he was not involved in key decisions like the migration from FTM to S, nor was he responsible for the Sonic airdrop, tokenomics structure, or incentive design.
He also said he did not support shutting down older systems like the Opera network or removing support for the old FTM token. In his words, those decisions were not under his control.
Focus shifts toward FlyingTulip project
At the same time, Cronje shared what he has been focusing on recently. He said that for the past 18 months, he has been working more on a different project called “flyingtulip.” This project has grown to around $70 million in total value locked. It runs yield systems across Ethereum and Sonic and offers returns from stablecoin strategies.
With his exit, Sonic Labs said the board members who helped build the project are now handing over full control of business operations to a new executive team. This is meant to improve structure and make decision-making clearer going forward, the company added.
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