Crypto.com's Cronos Blockchain Halted Amid $74 Million Tectonic Protocol Hack
The Cronos blockchain, supported by Crypto.com, was forced to halt and rewind its history after an ongoing theft due to the Tectonic protocol that Crypto.com had promoted for months.
Tectonic warned users to pause using its protocol altogether, following an exploit on Sunday that allowed a thief to withdraw real collateral from DeFi lending protocols using an artificially inflated price of TONIC.
The value of compromised funds was estimated at approximately $74 million by PeckShield. Crypto.com supplied one of the largest retail onramps for Tectonic and had advertised TONIC-denominated Visa card spending at 80 million merchants, as well as listing TONIC for trading on its main exchange.
Cronos' CRO token has lost 6% of its value over the past 24 hours due to fear about the hack. The controversy is not the first in Crypto.com's history, with a similar incident involving the re-minting of 70 billion CRO tokens into a 'Cronos Strategic Reserve' in March 2025.
The Cronos blockchain stopped producing blocks after the exploit and reverted to its pre-exploit state before resuming block production. This move has sparked concerns about the security and transparency of the blockchain, particularly given its description as 'permissionless.'