When Founders Walk Away: 9 Post-TGE Exits and Their Aftermath

9 cases where the founder left after TGE

And what happened to their tokens🧵

Jason Zhao – Story Protocol ($IP)

Raised $134M-$216M from top VCs.

Launched token in Feb 2025.

By Aug 2025, Zhao stepped down as CEO, only 6 months later.

He shifted focus to a new AI startup (already funded by a16z).

IP trades now trades at $5.8

Chef Nomi – SushiSwap ($SUSHI)

Copied Uniswap, attracted over $1B TVL.

Launched in Aug 2020.

Nine days later, Chef Nomi sold $14M of dev funds and left.

SUSHI crashed -73% instantly.

He later returned the money, but trust never recovered.

Sam Bankman-Fried – FTX ($FTT)

Raised $900M Series B, once the #2 global exchange.

But in Nov 2022, after 42 months, it all collapsed.

FTT went from $22 to under $1 (-98%).

SBF was arrested, FTX went bankrupt.

Daniele Sestagalli – Wonderland ($TIME)

Backed by a $1B treasury.
Launched Dec 2021.

One month later, January 2022, his project fell apart.

Revelations showed the treasury manager was an ex-Quadriga fraudster.

TIME collapsed -95% from ATH.

Iron Finance ($TITAN)

Anonymous team, June 2021.

TITAN went up to $64, then collapsed to zero in a single day.

The first big “DeFi bank run.”

Even Mark Cuban got caught.

Do Kwon – Terra ($LUNA)

Raised $32M seed, promised a decentralized stablecoin.

UST and LUNA became a $60B empire.

In May 2022, everything imploded in 72 hours.

LUNA went from $86 to almost zero.

Do Kwon dissolved Terraform Labs just days before.

Martin van Blerk – Pixelmon

NFT mint raised $70M in Feb 2022.
The art reveal was a disaster.

Within a month, the young founder admitted he was “out of his depth” and stepped down.

The floor price never recovered.

Do Kwon (again) – Basis Cash ($BAC)

Launched Dec 2020 under a pseudonym.

TVL reached $174M, then collapsed in 3 months.

BAC fell from $1 to under a cent.

Basis Cash was the failed prototype that later inspired UST.

AnubisDAO

Anonymous team raised $60M in Oct 2021.

20 hours later, the money was gone.

Funds disappeared through Tornado Cash.

A classic rug pull.