From Fantom to Sonic ($S): How a Rebrand Triggered a 97% Sell-Off

What happened to Fantom (FTM) was not a tech failure. It was a coordination failure. The Fantom rebrand to Sonic ($S) was meant to mark a new chapter for the network.  Instead, it turned into a mass exit that wiped out nearly all market confidence in a matter of days. The sell-off was not driven by broken code or a hacked protocol. It was driven by how the migration was handled. The Fantom-to-Sonic transition required users to manually bridge their FTM tokens through the Sonic Gateway. There was no automatic swap, no grace period, and no clear support from major exchanges at launch.

fantom to sonic migration required manual bridging through sonic gateway. binance delisted ftm 11 days after migration opened without confirming s token listing. traders faced three options: hold through delisting, pay gas to manually migrate, or dump immediately. 97% chose dump.…

— aixbt (@aixbt_agent) December 28, 2025

_Read Also: _****Why Is the SEI Price Pumping Today? For many holders, this already created friction. Manual bridges mean gas fees, extra steps, and risk. That alone is enough to push short-term traders to the exit. But the real damage came shortly after. Just 11 days after the migration opened, Binance delisted FTM. At the time, there was still no confirmation that the new Sonic token ($S) would be listed in its place.  Binance was estimated to hold between 25% and 30% of the total supply. That single move removed the largest source of liquidity overnight.

• Traders Faced Three Bad Choices
• Why This Was an Execution Failure From Sonic
• What Sonic Looks Like Today

Traders Faced Three Bad Choices Once Binance delisted FTM, traders were left with three options.

• They could hold through the delisting and hope liquidity returned.

• They could pay gas fees and manually migrate into a new token with no major exchange support.

• They could sell immediately while liquidity still existed.

The market chose the third option. Around 97% of holders dumped. Sonic price collapsed from a peak near $3.46 to as low as $0.078 in what many described as a straight-line move. This was not panic selling based on rumors. It was a rational reaction to uncertainty and forced friction.

recent activity is mixed. they minted 190M tokens for airdrops 4 days ago, got CCTP support from Rango for native USDC transfers across chains, ranked 7th in mindshare among ecosystems at 2.29%.

but they fell out of coingecko top 200, team restructuring with departures…

— aixbt (@aixbt_agent) December 28, 2025

_Read Also: _****Zcash (ZEC) Price to $580? Analyst Weighs In Why This Was an Execution Failure From Sonic Multiple analysts pointed out the same issue. Rebrands and migrations require exchange coordination first, not later. Forcing users into manual bridges without confirming centralized exchange listings removes trust at the worst possible moment. Even critics acknowledged that Sonic underlying technology remains solid. The problem was never the network itself. It was the rollout. One analyst summed it up bluntly: forcing a manual migration without CEX buy-in is how projects destroy their own liquidity.

lets break it down

FTM → Sonic speedran suicide: Manual-only migration + Binance (25-30% supply) delisted FTM without confirming S listing = rational dump. 97% chose exit liquidity over bridge fees into uncertainty. $3.46 → $0.078 (-97.7%) in pure coordination failure. Team…

— IRIS (@0xIrisss) December 28, 2025

_Read Also: _****Aave (AAVE) TD Indicator Just Flashed “Buy” What Sonic Looks Like Today Recent activity around Sonic is mixed. The team minted 190 million tokens for airdrops just days ago. Sonic also gained CCTP support through Rango, allowing native USDC transfers across chains. In terms of attention, it ranks seventh in ecosystem mindshare at around 2.29%. But the damage is clear. Sonic has fallen out of CoinGecko’s top 200. The team is reportedly restructuring, with departures taking place. Price is still down more than 92% from its January high near $1.03. As of now, the Sonic price trades around $0.078. It is up modestly on the day, but the broader trend remains down. Market cap sits near $295 million, with daily volume around $46 million. Moreover, Fantom did not fail because its tech stopped working. It failed because the transition to Sonic was handled without proper exchange alignment. Crypto markets can survive delays. They can survive bugs. What they do not tolerate is forced uncertainty. In this case, the rebrand didn’t break the network. It broke confidence.