Io.net Announces CEO Departure Just Days Before Native Token Debuts

Sudden CEO Shakeup at Io.net Raises Concerns Before Token Launch

io.net, a Solana-based project that lets users rent out computing power for machine learning tasks, is facing turbulence just days before its official token launch. Ahmad Shadid, one of the project’s founders and CEO, stepped down abruptly on June 9th. Fellow founder Tory Green, previously the COO, has taken over the CEO role.

Allegations and Controversy

Shadid’s departure occurred amidst unaddressed “allegations regarding his past,” according to a post he made on social media platform X. Critics suspect Shadid may have misled the community about the number of available GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) within the io.net network.

The project also faced a technical challenge in late April, experiencing a “GPU metadata attack” that significantly reduced the number of active GPU connections.

Token Launch and Community Concerns

Despite the recent leadership change, io.net is still scheduled to launch its native token, IO, on Binance’s Launchpool platform on June 11th. However, the timing of Shadid’s departure has sparked worries within the cryptocurrency community.

Some, like industry commentator “badenglishtea,” expressed concern on X that Shadid might use the launch as an opportunity to sell his IO tokens and disappear (“dump his IO coins”).

Shadid refuted these accusations, insisting his tokens are locked up for four years. He also emphasized that no investor, advisor, or team member can sell their allocated tokens before June 2025. Furthermore, Shadid pledged to contribute one million IO tokens to the project’s “Internet of GPUs Foundation” to support ecosystem growth.

While Shadid did not clarify his future involvement with io.net, the company did announce additional leadership changes to be revealed in the coming days.

New CEO Green remains optimistic about the project’s future. He views the token launch as “a new phase of growth for the network” and stated io.net’s commitment to “build the world’s largest decentralized AI compute network.” Green also highlighted acquiring more computing power providers and attracting new customers as key priorities.

io.net currently boasts approximately 20,000 “cluster-ready GPUs” and serves several AI-focused companies with services like model training and inference. However, the sudden leadership change and past controversies cast a shadow over the project’s upcoming token launch. Whether io.net can navigate these challenges and achieve its ambitious goals remains to be seen.