IOTA Announces Split With Project Founder David Sønstebø

Chris Williams

Dec. 11, 2020

IOTA has announced that it will be parting ways with its founder David Sønstebø. The decision came as the result of a meeting between the team’s Board of Directors and Supervisory Board.

Key Takeaways

David Sønstebø has left IOTA following an internal decision between the Board of Directors and Supervisory Board.
An announcement pointed to a difference in interests as a reason for the split.
The update follows a cash burn problem and ongoing conflicts in the IOTA team.

The IOTA Foundation announced that they are parting ways with its controversial founder, David Sønstebø. The Foundation highlighted a division in interests between Sønstebø and the rest of the team.

Divisions at IOTA

The Foundation’s post stated that “a unanimous decision” was reached between the IOTA’s Board of Directors and Supervisory Board.

The team posted an update to their announcement, citing the organization’s “collective of more than 120 like-minded people.” It described “actions [that] were not aligned with what the Foundation stands for” in reference to Sønstebø.

Both notes also expressed gratitude for Sønstebø’s work at the crypto project.

The news will doubtless come as a surprise to those who have followed the IOTA project closely. Recently it became clear that the team was facing financial difficulties, exacerbated by a gradual fall in the price of its MIOTA token.

Additionally, IOTA has had a lengthy history of internal conflicts between Sønstebø and other co-founders.

The project emerged as one of the stars of the 2017 crypto bull run. Its “tangle” architecture captured the attention of many investors in the space, leading its token price to hit a high of $5.25 in Dec. 2017.

Now, though, it trades at only $0.27. That’s a market cap loss of around 95%.

Still, IOTA insists that the team remains focused, concluding, “the IOTA Foundation is stronger than ever.”.

Disclosure: At the time of writing, this author owned MIOTA among a number of other cryptocurrencies.

Disclaimer