Cronos Network Halted After $75M Exploit Drains DeFi Lending Protocol

A major exploit targeting Tectonic, a DeFi lending protocol on the Cronos network, has halted operations on the chain. The attack saw an estimated $75 million in total drained from the platform, with approximately $6.29 million moved to Ethereum and swapped for 2,592 ETH.

The attacker targeted TONIC, Tectonic's governance token, driving its price up by around 100-fold in roughly 20 minutes. With the artificially inflated TONIC posted as collateral, the attacker borrowed large amounts of assets from Tectonic's lending pools.

Cronos has confirmed the exploit and halted block production on the network, freezing it in place. The frozen $60 million remains stranded on the chain, unable to move until validators decide what comes next. The decision will define how Cronos handles the recovery and whether the DeFi ecosystem on the chain survives the reputational damage.