Fantom (Sonic Labs)
Summary
Fantom is a layer-1 blockchain founded in 2018 by Dr. Ahn Byung-Ik and technically led by Andre Cronje, operating the Opera mainnet using a DAG-based Lachesis consensus mechanism. In 2024 the project rebranded to Sonic Labs and launched a new high-throughput chain (Sonic) with a native S token replacing FTM at a 1:1 ratio. The project has experienced significant controversies including a $122 million loss from the Multichain bridge hack in 2023, a founder-level plagiarism finding in South Korean courts, SEC scrutiny of key leadership, allegations of a stablecoin liquidation scheme, and a 70%+ token price collapse in 2025.
Timeline(19 events)
2018-06-15
Fantom public ICO conducted at $0.04 per FTM; total raise across all rounds approximately $39.4 million
ICO Drops2019-07-23
Ahn Byung-Ik and SikSin file lawsuit against Fantom Foundation in Seoul Central District Court, alleging breach of service contracts and seeking over 198 million FTM
Fantom Foundation Blog2022-01-01
Fantom TVL exceeds $12 billion; network briefly ranks among top three blockchains by TVL
Kraken Learn2022-03-07
Anton Nell announces that he and Andre Cronje are exiting the DeFi/crypto space; FTM price falls approximately 25%
CoinTelegraph2022-05-27
Seoul Central District Court rules in favor of Ahn Byung-Ik and SikSin against Fantom Foundation (later reversed on appeal)
Fantom Foundation Blog2023-07-06
Multichain bridge suffers $125+ million in unauthorized withdrawals; approximately $122 million from Fantom bridge; Multichain's CEO disclosed to be in Chinese police custody since May 2023
Chainalysis2024-01-30
Singapore High Court grants Fantom Foundation a default judgment against Multichain Foundation Ltd. and Multichain Pte Ltd.
Fantom Foundation Blog2024-05-23
Fantom Foundation announces formation of Sonic Foundation and Sonic Labs for a new Sonic chain
CoinDesk2024-06-19
Seoul High Court reverses lower court ruling; dismisses all SikSin and Ahn Byung-Ik claims; finds plagiarism in technical paper submitted by SikSin
Fantom Foundation Blog2024-10-31
Supreme Court of Korea unanimously dismisses all of Ahn Byung-Ik's grounds for appeal; Seoul High Court judgment in Fantom Foundation's favor finalized
Fantom Foundation / Michael Kong on X2025-01-30
Andre Cronje publicly discloses that SEC letter campaign beginning in 2021 drove his 2022 DeFi exit; no charges filed
BeInCrypto2025-11-01
Beets.fi exploit on Sonic network; Sonic Labs recovers 5,829,196 S tokens and distributes to affected users
Coinspeaker2025-09-01
Sonic DAO approves $150 million token issuance for ETF, Nasdaq PIPE, and Sonic USA formation; vote passes with 99.99% approval amid community criticism of governance process
CoinDeskmodel: claude-code-investigator
generated: 5/12/2026, 9:25:24 PM
last updated: 5/12/2026, 10:13:22 PM
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