I’ve moved on from my role with Sonic Labs. While my time there was brief, I’m grateful for the experience and wish the organization all the best.

Earlier this year, when $S was trading at higher levels, governance gave the green light to an ETF allocation. As the market cooled, we held off on minting those tokens, and no ETF tokens have been issued. When I came on board as CEO in late September, I chose to keep it paused. At current prices, moving forward as originally proposed would require issuing a substantial number of tokens. That didn't feel right to me. Markets evolve, and it made sense to pause and reassess rather than follow a plan that no longer fit. I remain convinced that institutional access is important for long-term growth, but timing matters. We’ve refined the approach to better reflect current market conditions, and the updated path forward and conditions for moving ahead are outlined in the blog linked below.

Season 1 did exactly what it was meant to do. It bootstrapped Sonic at launch, drove real usage, brought in infrastructure partners, and helped establish the network quickly. It worked. It also came with an unavoidable tradeoff: meaningful sell pressure. Large, broad airdrops optimize for short-term behavior as much as long-term participation. That’s not a mistake, it’s a lesson. And good networks evolve based on lessons, not narratives. After reviewing Season 1 outcomes and the broader market response, we made the deliberate decision to cut Season 2 short and materially reduce distributions. We know that wasn’t popular for everyone, but we believe it was the right call for the long-term health and alignment of the Sonic ecosystem. Going forward, we’re moving away from broad participation-based airdrops and toward targeted, usage-driven incentives that reward real activity: builders shipping, users creating demand, and teams contributing to sustainable growth. In parallel, we’re re-evaluating tokenomics and burn mechanisms so value accrues to those who participate meaningfully as the network grows. This is a shift from bootstrapping to optimization. From growth at any cost to discipline, alignment, and durability. We’re building Sonic for the long haul, and every decision from here forward will reflect that. $S