Cronos Halted After $75M Loss from Tectonic Price Exploit

Cronos Network halted block production after a price-manipulation exploit hit Tectonic, its largest lending protocol, resulting in preliminary losses estimated at $75 million.

The attack centered on TONIC, Tectonic's governance token, which an attacker reportedly pushed about 100-fold higher within roughly 20 minutes. This inflated valuation increased the token's borrowing power, allowing the attacker to use TONIC as collateral and withdraw other assets from lending pools.

Tectonic held $121.7 million in total value locked and $82.7 million in active loans before the attack. Only about $6 million reached Ethereum before the halt, leaving most exploit-linked assets stranded on Cronos.