The CEO of Ice Open Community got here ahead this week to elucidate the sudden and precipitous drop in ION tokens, however the clarification did little to calm a group divided between pity and outright condemnation.
What the CEO stated occurred
Based on the CEO, ION’s collapse was not brought on by the core crew promoting out. For over 4 years, the mission has operated with out conventional banking, counting on token-based contracts with service suppliers to assist improvement, advertising and marketing, and operations in trade for token allocations.
As market situations deteriorated, one massive long-term backer misplaced confidence and exited by promoting his total place, ready for the token to be unlocked. That single withdrawal triggered a worth collapse.
The CEO additionally revealed that almost $18 million has been spent on the mission to this point, with month-to-month expenditures of roughly $400,000. The core crew didn’t obtain a wage. A big portion of the token provide is consumed by trade itemizing, liquidity provision, and promotion prices, which the CEO says are a lot greater than most group members understand.
The mission nonetheless has over 1 billion tokens in storage, however the crew is at present contemplating promoting a few of them to cut back prices and proceed operations.
His assertion ended with a conditional promise.
“We are going to watch the approaching days fastidiously and assess whether or not now we have sufficient confidence and momentum to proceed constructing. If now we have confidence and momentum, we are going to proceed. If not, we shall be pressured to contemplate exiting the mission. And if that occurs, I wish to be clear: we intend to burn our remaining tokens, not promote them.”
Historical past that defies clarification
The CEO was additionally underneath critical suspicion previous to this incident.
In 2018, a mission related to him reportedly raised round $43 million in an ICO, leaving traders with vital losses. In 2025, he launched a number of Tap2Mine tasks and reportedly generated round 500 million ICE tokens, which he then migrated to ION by means of charges. A dedication was made to burn these tokens. That burn by no means occurred.
Two days earlier than the ION crash turned public, the value crashed considerably. A closure announcement adopted quickly after.
