Cronos Exploit Leaves 7.6% of Affected Funds Off-Chain

Cronos' Tectonic exploit has left a significant dent in its network. According to the blockchain's post-mortem report, $120.4 million was affected by manipulated collateral values generated during the incident. However, only about $111.2 million was reversed after validators intervened and restored the network to its pre-exploit state.

This means that around 7.6% of the affected funds, amounting to approximately $9.19 million, were transferred off the Cronos blockchain before validators halted the network on August 30 at 14:32:47 UTC. This figure is higher than the previously estimated $8.3 million traced to Ethereum by blockchain data provider Bitquery.

The exploit occurred when an attacker deposited $5 million and then repeatedly borrowed and redeposited TONIC through a 98-cycle loop, driving its price nearly 300-fold higher. The activity was detected at 12:49 UTC on August 30, and block production resumed after balances were restored at 23:49:01 UTC.