The crypto world has been abuzz with the news of the departure of the CEO of the Solana-based decentralized infrastructure provider Io.net, just two days before the project’s token launch. Ahmad Shadid, the co-founder of Io.net, left his position “effective immediately” and was replaced by fellow founder and former chief operating officer Tory Green. This sudden change in leadership has raised eyebrows and sparked discussions within the crypto community.
Io.net’s CEO Departure and Token Launch
The Io.net project, which allows users to rent out GPU power for money, has been making waves in the AI and blockchain space. The Solana-based artificial intelligence (AI) project aggregates GPU supply to create a network for machine learning startups to access computing power at a fraction of the cost compared to the traditional cloud.
Allegations and Shadid’s Departure
In his announcement, Shadid stated that while there have been “allegations regarding [his] past,” his decision to step down as CEO was to “allow io.net to move forward without distraction and to focus on its growth and success.” However, he did not directly address the nature of these allegations.
Some critics believe that Shadid may have misled the community about the actual number of GPU chips that Io.net offers. The network also suffered a GPU metadata attack on April 28, which temporarily reduced the number of active GPU connections from 600,000 to 10,000.
Io.net Token Launch and Concerns
The io.net token, IO, is set to launch on Binance’s Launchpool on June 11 at 12:00 am UTC. With 95,000,000 IO tokens to be released at launch and a maximum supply of 800,000,000 IO tokens, the timing of Shadid’s departure has raised concerns that he may “dump” his IO coins on launch and “disappear.”
However, Shadid has responded to these accusations, claiming that his IO tokens are subject to a four-year lockup and that no investor, adviser, or team member can sell their monthly vested tokens until June 2025. He also stated that he would personally contribute 1 million IO tokens toward the firm’s Internet of GPUs Foundation to “help grow the ecosystem.”
New Leadership and Future Plans
The departing CEO, Shadid, did not explain whether he would remain connected to the Io.net ecosystem. The new CEO, Green, stated that additional leadership changes at Io.net will be announced in the “coming days.”
Green expressed the company’s unwavering commitment to its mission, saying, “We remain unwavering in our mission to build the world’s largest decentralized AI compute network and expect to focus heavily on acquiring and retaining suppliers and onboarding new customers.” Io.net has already onboarded approximately 20,000 cluster-ready GPUs and is serving end-to-end AI inference and model training workloads across several AI-focused companies.
Conclusion
The sudden departure of Io.net’s CEO, Ahmad Shadid, just two days before the project’s token launch has raised concerns and questions within the crypto community. While Shadid has addressed some of the allegations and provided assurances about the vesting of his tokens, the timing of his departure has left some skeptical about the project’s future. However, the new leadership team, led by Tory Green, remains committed to the company’s mission and plans to focus on growth and expansion in the decentralized AI computing space.