Cronos Blockchain Hit with $75M DeFi Lending Protocol Exploit
A devastating exploit rocked the Cronos blockchain on August 30, when an attacker manipulated the price of Tectonic's governance token, TONIC, to borrow over $74 million in other assets. The attack was made possible by a 20% collateral factor, which allowed the attacker to deposit a small amount of TONIC as collateral and borrow much more in other tokens.
The total losses from the exploit are estimated at around $75 million, with approximately $6 million successfully bridged to Ethereum before Cronos validators intervened to halt block production. The remaining assets, valued between $60 million and $69 million, were effectively frozen on the Cronos chain.
Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek confirmed that the company's main app and centralized exchange were unaffected by the exploit, with customer funds held on Crypto.com safe. A full post-mortem is promised but has not yet been published.