Recently, co-founder and CEO of the DePIN io.net project Ahmad Shadid announced his resignation, in the context of the IO coin just being listed on Binance Launchpool.
io.net co-founder Ahmad Shadid announced his resignation as CEO on Sunday through a post on social network X, nominating co-founder and former COO Tory Green as his successor.
Shadid said:
“While there are allegations about my past, I want to emphasize that I am stepping down as CEO to allow Io.Net to move forward without distraction and to focus on its growth and success.” He also announced plans to donate one million of Io.Net's soon-to-be-launched Token from his personal funds to the company's Internet of GPUs Fund to "help grow the ecosystem."
New CEO Tory Green affirmed:
“Going forward, we will continue to fulfill the vision that Ahmad set out when he founded Io.Net – to become the world's largest AI computing network and bring AI to everyone.”
Green also highlighted Binance's plans to launch the Token on Launchpool on June 11.
While Shadid did not elaborate on the nature of the “allegations” in his resignation announcement, io.net has faced criticism from rivals in the DePIN space in recent months over whether the service is the delivery of multiple GPU chips as claimed. After Martin Shkreli and others noted that the site reported diverse metrics for its network size, io.net claimed that attackers attempted to spoof GPUs to reap rewards from system. Other allegations relate to Shadid's involvement in predominantly Arabic cryptocurrency projects in the past.
Greg Osuri, co-founder and CEO of Akash Network, a competitor in the DePIN space, commented:
“DePIN is at a nascent stage to endure such controversial founders. I'm happy to see Io.Net moving in the right direction.” Osuri added: “While it is a positive step on Io.Net's part to change its CEO, questions remain about the veracity of the allegations of money laundering and drug financing. Firing the CEO rather than addressing the allegations could mean there is some degree of truth in it.”
Shadid clarified that its Token supply will be locked for four years, while other investors and team members will be subject to shorter lock-ups. He wrote:
“I have a 4-year lock-up and distribution, no investor, advisor or team member will receive their monthly Token distribution before June 2025.”
When asked directly about the timing of his resignation just two days before the Token launch, Shadid replied:
