Helium CEO Amir Haleem is stepping down after 13 years running the Solana-based blockchain wireless project, handing control to Mario Di Dio as HNT trades nearly 99% below its all-time high.
Haleem said in a Friday post on X that he told the team "a couple of months ago" that he would move from CEO to chairman. Di Dio, Helium's network chief, will take over as CEO.
The leadership change comes as HNT, Helium's main token, is at about $0.50, down roughly 99.1% from its November 2021 peak of $54.8, according to CoinGecko. The token has also fallen more than 20% since the news broke.
- The handover came two days after Helium Mobile, the consumer phone service built around the Helium Network, was sold to Noble Mobile, a budget wireless carrier founded by Andrew Yang, the entrepreneur and former U.S. presidential candidate.
- The companies didn't disclose the deal terms.
Haleem said in an X post that he's "not going anywhere," still holds HNT and will remain active as chairman.
- Founded in 2013 by Haleem, Shawn Fanning and Sean Carey, Helium was once treated as one of web3's cleaner real-world crypto use cases.
- Users bought and deployed hotspot devices to help provide wireless coverage and earn HNT.
- Nova Labs, the company behind Helium, raised $200 million in Series D funding in 2022 at a $1.2 billion valuation.
- The round was led by Tiger Global and Andreessen Horowitz, with participation from Seven Seven Six, Goodyear Ventures, GV, Liberty Global, NGP Capital, Pantera Capital, Ribbit Capital and Deutsche Telekom's Telekom Innovation Pool.