The chain state was restored to before the exploit and block production resumed from block 90,896,189 at 23:49:01 UTC on Aug. 30, though some protocols, RPC providers, explorers and bridges may take longer to come back online.
Cronos, the Crypto.com-linked Layer-1 chain pitching itself as a round-the-clock settlement network, halted after an exploit hit lending protocol Tectonic, putting a rarely discussed part of its design in plain view as the validators controlling block production are permissioned.
- Cronos said in a Sunday post on X that it had identified an exploit at Tectonic and halted the network while investigating.
- Tectonic separately told users not to interact with the protocol, while Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek said in an X post the exchange and its app were unaffected and that Crypto.com's security team was assisting the investigation.
- The size of the loss and the exact attack vector haven't yet been confirmed.
- Launched in December 2021 and incubated by Particle B, Tectonic is currently the seventh-largest protocol on Cronos, with just over $3 million in total value locked, according to DefiLlama data.
Anyone can use Cronos. Not anyone can validate it
Cronos EVM uses Proof-of-Authority, a permissioned version of Proof-of-Stake. Its own documentation says validator hosting is "by invitation only" and that applications to become a validator aren't open.
Cronos also said in 2024 that the network had 32 validators before adding EDF subsidiary Exaion as another operator.
- The size of the exploit remained unclear Sunday, with early on-chain estimates putting the affected funds at roughly $66 million to $75 million.
- Neither Tectonic nor Cronos had confirmed a loss figure, however, and some estimates suggested about $60 million remained on Cronos when the network was halted, potentially limiting the attacker's ability to move much of the capital off-chain.
Cronos currently markets the network as providing "sub-cent, sub-second 24/7 global settlement," saying settlement runs continuously with "no market close" or cut-off windows.
Sunday's halt showed just how much Cronos still depends on a small, permissioned group of validators to keep the network running.
The halt may also have limited further losses from Tectonic. But it exposed the tradeoff directly, since Cronos can respond quickly when one of its largest DeFi applications is under attack precisely because control over block production isn't permissionless.