Permissioned ledger
Cronos ticker CRO
Summary
Cosmos SDK chain that runs an Ethereum Virtual Machine through Ethermint and orders blocks with Tendermint (CometBFT) BFT consensus. Cronos documentation calls the consensus proof of authority, a permissioned variant of proof of stake, and a Cronos FAQ says validator hosting is by invitation only. On 2026-09-27 the chain's staking endpoint reported 10 bonded validators (maximum 30), with voting power held in a separate bonding token named stake rather than CRO, and both slashing fractions set to zero. A block commits once validators holding more than two thirds of voting power precommit it. The official explorer showed blocks averaging about 0.43 seconds that day. 24689121437
Design
- System
- Permissioned ledgerCovers Cronos EVM (chain ID 25, cronosmainnet_25-1). Anyone can read, transact and deploy contracts, but block production is limited to an invitation-only validator set that Cronos docs call proof of authority, a permissioned variant of proof of stake. The package table listed it as a permissionless layer 1; this profile uses the permissioned class because consensus membership is gated. Cronos POS Chain (formerly Crypto.org Chain) and Cronos zkEVM (Ethereum-settled, being sunset) are separate chains not described here.
- Settlement family
- Cosmos SDK
- Scarce resource
- Reputation
- State model
- Accounts
- Finality
- Other
- Who makes blocks
- The bonded validators, chosen in turn by CometBFT's round robin in proportion to voting power. On 2026-09-27: four space-probe names (Pioneer 11, Huygens, Voyager 1, Voyager 2) at about 11.7% each, sharing one identity key, one listing cronos.org as its website; and six named after Cronos applications (VVS, Tectonic, Ferro, Veno, Minted, Fulcrom) at about 8.9% each. Nineteen other validators, including independent staking services such as Allnodes and Stakin, were jailed between 31 August and 2 September 2026, after the post-exploit restart, and had not rejoined.
- Fork choice
- No open fork choice: each height is decided by more than two thirds of precommits, so normal operation has no reorgs. On 2026-08-30 the validators halted the chain after an exploit of the Tectonic lending app and restarted it from the state before the exploit, discarding 10,961 committed blocks (about 1 hour 54 minutes of history).
Qualifications
- System class · Contested. Use of the chain is open to anyone, which is why it is often grouped with permissionless layer-1 chains, but validator membership is by invitation and Cronos's own docs call the consensus permissioned. A reviewer could reasonably file it either way; this profile follows the consensus membership.
- Finality · Contested. CometBFT gives immediate finality once more than two thirds of voting power precommits, and there are no ordinary reorgs. On 2026-08-30 the validators nonetheless discarded 10,961 committed blocks by coordinated action, so finality in practice depends on the validator set's choices.
- Scarce resource · Partial. Validators bond a separate token named stake, not CRO; admission is by invitation and both slashing fractions are zero, so nothing economic is at risk for misbehaviour. The consensus is recorded as authority or reputation based.
- Settlement family · Partial. The chain is built with the Cosmos SDK and CometBFT and uses IBC, but users see an EVM environment (0x addresses, EVM contracts, Ethereum wallets). It does not settle to Ethereum.
- Cronos zkevm · Not applicable. Cronos zkEVM is a separate ZK Stack chain that settles to Ethereum, not to Cronos EVM. Cronos announced on 2026-06-03 that it is being sunset, with final shutdown set for 2027-06-03.
- Throughput · Unknown. Cronos describes sub-second, sub-cent settlement but no sourced, classed transactions-per-second figure was found, so none is recorded.
Tradeoffs
- Emphasizes
- Scalability
- Gives up
- Open validator participation and stake-backed security: block production is limited to an invitation-only set, the bonding token is not CRO, and there is no slashing, so safety rests on the operators' reputations rather than on stake at risk. The August 2026 rollback showed that the set can coordinate to halt the chain and reverse committed history, and after the restart it shrank from 29 bonded validators to 10.Cronos presents sub-second blocks and immediate BFT finality as strengths, and some readers count a small, known validator set as a security benefit because operators are accountable; others read the same facts as a centralization risk. The rollback restored most of the exploited funds, but it also reversed every unrelated transaction in the discarded window. Throughput is not recorded as a figure in this profile.
- Full node at home
- Demanding 514Cronos lists a 4-core CPU and 32 GB RAM with LevelDB or 64 GB with RocksDB for every node type; storage is about 50 GB for a pruned node synced by state sync, about 1 TB for a default full node, and about 6 TB (LevelDB) or 4.5 TB (RocksDB) for an archive node. Blocks arrive roughly every half second. Running a full node lets you verify the chain but does not admit you to consensus.
- Throughput claims
- No classified figure recorded
Scaling layers
No scaling layer recorded in this profile.
Capabilities
| Capability | How it is provided | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Account abstraction | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Atomic swaps | Unknown | A trust-minimized cross-party swap mechanism on Cronos EVM was not reviewed. EVM contracts could implement hash time-locked swaps, but none was verified. IBC token transfers are not atomic swaps. |
| Authenticated data publication | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
| Light clients | Built into the protocolLimited scope | CometBFT commits and IBC: consensus produces what a light client checks, since a block commits with precommits from validators holding more than two thirds of voting power, and IBC counterparties such as Cronos POS Chain verify Cronos state through on-chain light clients for transfers. Limited: this light verification serves IBC transfers; no user-facing light client for Cronos EVM itself was reviewed. 1318 |
| Native staking or delegation | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| On-chain governance | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Parallel execution | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Payment or state channels | Unknown | No payment or state channel layer anchored to Cronos EVM was reviewed. IBC channels are messaging paths, not payment channels. |
| Programmable spending | Native (protocol or core-team software) Earlier definition | Ethermint runs the EVM, and the chain's parameters allow contract creation and calls, so spend conditions are smart contracts. Cronos also announced sponsored-gas transactions through Alchemy in July 2026 without naming the mechanism. 21025 |
| Protocol-verified messaging | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Reversible transfers or recovery | Unknown | Not yet assessed under the current definitions; Safe's deployment registry lists its version 1.4.1 smart-account contracts on Cronos EVM (chain ID 25). A Safe account needs a set number of owners to approve each spend, lets owners be replaced and can add modules, including one that restores access under set conditions, but no cited source shows a delay or recovery module deployed there, and an owner threshold alone meets neither part of this row. The August 2026 rollback reversed the whole chain by validator action; it was not a sender reversal or an owner recovery path. 3940 |
| Rollups | Unknown | Unknown under the rule that absence needs a source: the earlier note said absence was not exhaustively verified. No rollup settling to Cronos EVM was found; Cronos zkEVM is a ZK Stack chain that settles to Ethereum, not to Cronos EVM, and is being sunset. 2223 |
| Shielded transfers | Structured assessment pending | Not yet assessed for any chain. |
| Signed partial offers | Unknown | Not yet assessed under this row's current definition. |
Reading these values
- How this feature is provided
- Built into the protocol, core-team software or independent software says where a feature lives and who can change it. These are implementation layers, not quality: core-team software is not closer to the protocol than independent software.
- Structured assessment pending
- The shared review has not assessed this feature for any chain yet (Account abstraction, Native staking or delegation, On-chain governance, Parallel execution, Protocol-verified messaging and Shielded transfers). That does not mean it is absent, and a chain’s profile may already describe it.
- Unknown
- The review has not established this for this chain under the current definition; the note beside it says why. Unknown is not absent and not a low score. A feature reads “Not present” only when a source shows it is absent.
- Earlier definition
- Payment or state channels, Programmable spending and Rollups keep the earlier definition until the next fact-check. There, “Native” does not separate the protocol from core-team software, “Ecosystem software” does not say who publishes it, and “Partial” does not say which layer.
- Reading across rows
- The list of capabilities is incomplete. Do not read these rows as a chain leading or lagging overall.
Ecosystem & custody
| Product type | Status | Notes and sources |
|---|---|---|
| Automated market makers | Established in the ecosystemVVS Finance | VVS Finance documents constant-product V2 pools and concentrated-liquidity V3 pools on Cronos, and the official explorer labels its router contract. VVS calls itself the leading Cronos DEX; liquidity depth was not measured and other venues were not reviewed. 1630 |
| Issuer-native stablecoins | Established in the ecosystemUSDC (Circle), EURC (Circle) | Circle lists native USDC and EURC contracts on Cronos; Cronos announced them live on 2026-06-29. Native means issuer-issued on Cronos. Bridged USDC (USDC.e) is a different token that still circulates. Tether does not list Cronos among its USDT networks. 24262729 |
| Algorithmic stablecoins | Unknown | Algorithmic or hybrid stablecoins on Cronos EVM were not reviewed. |
| Bridges | Native to the protocolIBC via Cronos Bridge (Cronos POS Chain, other Cosmos chains), Circle CCTP (USDC), Symbiosis (independent) | Cronos documents IBC transfers of CRO and other assets with Cronos POS Chain and other Cosmos chains through the Cronos Bridge app. Circle lists Cronos as a CCTP chain (domain 32) for standard USDC transfers. Cronos docs also list Symbiosis as an independent bridge used at the user's own risk. Deposits into the Cronos zkEVM bridge are closed. Risk: IBC safety depends on each counterparty chain's consensus and correct light clients; CCTP depends on Circle's attestation service; Symbiosis has its own trust model, which was not reviewed. Assets bridged in either direction also depend on Cronos's permissioned validators, who showed in August 2026 that they can halt and roll back the chain; exploited funds that had already left Cronos before that halt were not recovered, and Cronos said it was still reconciling with exchanges and bridges. 1318192023283637 |
| Block explorers | First-partyCronos Explorer (explorer.cronos.com) | Cronos docs name Cronos Explorer as the reference explorer for Cronos EVM. No other explorer was verified in this review. Explorer data is indexed by its operator and is not consensus. 1415 |
| Hardware wallets | Established in the ecosystemLedger, Trezor (through MetaMask or Rabby) | See the custody section. Ledger's coin page offers a Cronos account in Ledger Wallet but describes Cronos with older Crypto.com Chain wording. Trezor's coin page lists the Cronos network, but Trezor's coin-support page says Cronos is among the networks managed through third-party wallets, so the Trezor path runs through MetaMask or Rabby. 313233 |
Hardware-wallet custody
| Device maker | Status | What users can and cannot do |
|---|---|---|
| Ledger | Native supportSame as native: Unknown | Can: Add a Cronos account in Ledger Wallet (formerly Ledger Live) and send and receive CRO Can: Swap Cronos in Ledger Wallet through third-party partners, per Ledger's coin page Can: Pair the device with the Crypto.com Onchain browser extension for Cronos apps, per Cronos docs Cannot: Treat a Cronos POS Chain account as a Cronos EVM account; they are separate chains with separate addressesLedger's Cronos page offers a Cronos account in Ledger Wallet but describes Cronos with the older Crypto.com Chain wording, so the network it means is not stated; Cronos docs say Ledger Wallet shows CRO holdings on the Cronos EVM chain. Token display and app coverage were not verified. 2131 |
| Trezor | Through an intermediaryMetaMask or RabbySame as native: Unknown | Can: Use a Trezor Safe 3, Safe 5 or Safe 7 on Cronos EVM through MetaMask or Rabby; Trezor's coin-support page names Cronos among the networks managed with third-party wallets Can: Hold the CRO token on Ethereum in Trezor Suite, which is a separate token contract on a separate chain Cannot: Manage the Cronos EVM network in Trezor Suite Cannot: Stake CRO through Trezor; Trezor's coin page marks staking as unavailableTrezor's coin page lists two CRO networks (Cronos and Ethereum) and three apps (Trezor Suite, MetaMask, Rabby) without mapping them, and its coin-support page says Cronos is among the networks managed through third-party wallets. Under the custody evidence rule that is a third-party wallet path, not partial vendor support. The Cosmos-based Cronos POS Chain is a separate chain. 3233 |
Public data
iKnow Blockchain has no public-data lookups for Cronos yet. This is a limit of the service, not a statement about the network.
| Lookup | Status | What it covers and its limits |
|---|---|---|
| Address or account | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Tokens and assets | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| NFTs | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
| Transactions | Not available yet | Public-data lookups for this chain are not built yet. |
Sourced developments
Developments: Review overdue Reviewed Sep 27, 2026; next review was due Oct 7, 2026, 12:00 UTC.
Publication date · newest first
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Cronos v1.8.0 published as a pre-release
The Cronos node repository published v1.8.0 as a pre-release. Its notes describe a libp2p networking stack, an application-side mempool pre-verification layer, Block-STM parallel EVM execution inside the Cosmos SDK, and upgrades to Cosmos SDK v0.54.3, IBC-go v11, CometBFT v0.39 and go-ethereum v1.16.9 (enabling the Osaka hard fork rules). It names a governance upgrade plan called v1.8 and warns operators not to upgrade to the binary immediately.
- Proposal:no on-chain upgrade proposal observed as of review
- Implementation:code released as a pre-release
- Release:pre-release v1.8.0 published 2026-09-24
- Activation:not active on mainnet as of this review
Sources: crypto-org-chain/cronos maintainers — Cronos v1.8.0 release notes (external site) · crypto-org-chain/cronos maintainers — Cronos releases (external site) · Cronos public REST endpoint — Cronos EVM governance proposals (REST endpoint) (external site)
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Validator-only release v1.7.9 follows the 30 August halt and rollback
After an exploit of the Tectonic lending app, Cronos EVM validators halted block production on 30 August 2026 and restarted the chain from the state before the exploit, discarding 10,961 blocks (about 1 hour 54 minutes). On 2 September the project published v1.7.9, a validator-only release to restore consensus consistency following the rollback.
- Implementation:rollback executed by validator coordination on 2026-08-30
- Release:v1.7.9 pre-release for validators published 2026-09-02
- Activation:block production resumed at height 90,896,190 at 23:49 UTC on 2026-08-30, per the chain's block record
Sources: crypto-org-chain/cronos maintainers — Cronos v1.7.9 release notes (external site) · crypto-org-chain/cronos issue tracker — Post-rollback: mempool checkState desync across RPC nodes (issue 2200) (external site) · The Block — Cronos says $9.2 million remains unrecovered after Tectonic exploit, chain rollback (external site) · CoinDesk — Cronos erases two hours of transactions to recover $111M in Tectonic hack (external site) · Cronos public REST endpoint — Cronos EVM block 90,896,190 (REST endpoint) (external site) · Cronos public REST endpoint — Cronos EVM validators, all statuses (REST endpoint) (external site)
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Native USDC, EURC and CCTP went live on Cronos
Cronos announced that Circle-issued USDC and EURC and Circle's CCTP were live on Cronos EVM. Circle's own pages list the Cronos USDC and EURC contracts and list Cronos as CCTP domain 32. Cronos says bridged USDC (USDC.e) keeps working during a transition in which the ecosystem moves liquidity to native USDC.
- Implementation:contracts deployed and listed by Circle
- Release:announced live 2026-06-29
- Activation:active as of this review
Sources: Cronos — Native USDC, EURC, and CCTP Are Live on Cronos (external site) · Circle — USDC contract addresses (external site) · Circle — EURC contract addresses (external site) · Circle — CCTP supported chains and domains (external site)
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Cronos v1.7.8 adds an opt-in fix for failing transaction traces
The Cronos node repository published v1.7.8 as a regular release, not a pre-release. It addresses an old gas-accounting bug: when a node replays a transaction that is already on chain for debug_traceTransaction, debug_traceBlock or debug_traceCall, the fee it works out again can differ from the fee first charged, and the trace then fails. The release adds an optional traceReplay setting to the trace configuration. When it is set and the upfront fee deduction fails, the node logs a warning and finishes the trace without charging the fee. The setting is off by default.
- Implementation:opt-in traceReplay setting for debug trace calls, off by default
- Release:v1.7.8 published 2026-06-24, not marked pre-release
- Activation:no network-wide activation named; applies on nodes that install it and only when a trace call sets traceReplay
Sources: crypto-org-chain/cronos maintainers — Cronos v1.7.8 release notes (external site) · crypto-org-chain/cronos maintainers — Cronos releases (external site) · crypto-org-chain/cronos maintainers — Cronos releases (Atom feed) (external site)
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Cronos zkEVM Alpha to be shut down in June 2027
Cronos announced the sunset of Cronos zkEVM, its separate Ethereum-settled ZK Stack chain. Bridge deposits closed at the announcement, withdrawals stay open for about a year, and final shutdown is set for 3 June 2027 at 03:00 UTC. Cronos cited resource focus and ecosystem growth below the level needed to sustain a parallel chain.
- Implementation:bridge deposits disabled
- Release:withdrawal-only period
- Activation:final shutdown scheduled for 2027-06-03 03:00 UTC
Sources: Cronos — Sunsetting the Cronos zkEVM Alpha in 2027 (external site) · Cronos — Cronos zkEVM documentation (external site)
Topics your AI can explain
Your AI can explain these topics for Cronos through the connection, with sources.
Known gaps
What this profile's review did not establish:
- The operators behind the 10 validator names were not verified, and no current official page describing how validators are admitted was found; the invitation-only wording comes from a long-running Cronos FAQ, whose figure of more than 20 partner validators is out of date.
- Chain records show 19 validators, mostly independent staking services, were jailed between 31 August and 2 September 2026, after the restart, and had not rejoined by 27 September; no fetched source explains why or whether they will return.
- Cronos's own post-mortem of the August 2026 halt and rollback was published on X and could not be fetched; the rollback details rely on the v1.7.9 release notes, the project's issue tracker and reporting by The Block and CoinDesk.
- CoinDesk reported the validator set as capped at 100, while the chain's staking parameters read on 2026-09-27 show a cap of 30 and 10 bonded validators; this profile uses the on-chain values.
- Validator counts, voting power, slashing and fee parameters were read from a public endpoint on 2026-09-27 and can be changed by governance, which the same validators control.
- Ledger's Cronos page does not state which CRO network it means, and Trezor's page does not say which wallet app handles the Cronos network; both custody rows need a vendor-side recheck.
- The Cronos fee-market page lists a minimum gas multiplier of 0.5, meaning at least half the gas limit is charged, but does not otherwise describe refunds of unused gas; the pending v1.8.0 release changes mempool and fee handling.
- No sourced, classed throughput figure was found, so no throughput claim is recorded.
- Atomic-swap, channel and algorithmic-stablecoin surfaces on Cronos EVM were not reviewed.
- DEX venues other than VVS Finance and explorers other than Cronos Explorer were not reviewed; VVS liquidity depth was not measured.
- The mechanism behind the July 2026 sponsored-gas feature (for example account abstraction or relayers) was not stated in Cronos's announcement.
Sources
Oldest dated source check: Source checked Sep 27, 2026 Next check due Oct 27, 2026.
- Cronos EVM documentation (external site)
- Architecture (external site)
- Background (external site)
- FAQs on Cronos POS, Cronos EVM and Cronos zkEVM chains (external site)
- Cronos EVM Mainnet (running nodes) (external site)
- Cronos EVM staking parameters (REST endpoint) (external site)
- Cronos EVM bonded validators (REST endpoint) (external site)
- Cronos EVM validators, all statuses including jailed (REST endpoint) (external site)
- Cronos EVM slashing parameters (REST endpoint) (external site)
- Cronos EVM module parameters (REST endpoint) (external site)
- Cronos EVM governance proposals (REST endpoint) (external site)
- Byzantine Consensus Algorithm (external site)
- IBC overview (external site)
- Cronos Explorer (external site)
- Block Explorer and API Keys (external site)
- VVS Finance: Router address page (external site)
- Ultra-Fast and Sub-Second: Cronos EVM's Block Time Revolution (external site)
- IBC (Cronos POS Chain, other Cosmos chains) (external site)
- Independent bridges (external site)
- FAQs for Bridge transfers (external site)
- Crypto Wallets (external site)
- Cronos zkEVM documentation (external site)
- Sunsetting the Cronos zkEVM Alpha in 2027 (external site)
- Native USDC, EURC, and CCTP Are Live on Cronos (external site)
- Alchemy RPC and Gasless Transactions Are Live on Cronos (external site)
- USDC contract addresses (external site)
- EURC contract addresses (external site)
- CCTP supported chains and domains (external site)
- Supported protocols (external site)
- VVS Finance documentation (full text export) (external site)
- Cronos wallet (external site)
- Safe and secure Cronos wallet (external site)
- Trezor hardware wallet supported coins and tokens (external site)
- Cronos v1.7.9 release notes (external site)
- Post-rollback: mempool checkState desync across RPC nodes (issue 2200) (external site)
- Cronos says $9.2 million remains unrecovered after Tectonic exploit, chain rollback (external site)
- Cronos erases two hours of transactions to recover $111M in Tectonic hack (external site)
- crypto-org-chain/cronos (external site)
- SafeL2 v1.4.1 deployments by chain ID (safe-deployments registry) (external site)
- How Safe Smart Accounts work (external site)
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Funding disclosure
Funding disclosures appear here when an upkeep arrangement exists, in the form “Upkeep funded by [name]; verdicts unaffected.” The funder ledger has not been published yet. Neutrality & funding