Cronos (CRO) proposed to reissue 70B burned tokens with a 10-year lockup schedule

Cronos, the L1 chain by Crypto.com, proposes to reissue 70B of formerly burned tokens. The additional CRO tokens will be added to the team’s strategic reserve, with a 10-year vesting schedule.

Cronos (CRO) has proposed the reissue of 70B tokens, which were previously burned to keep the supply scarce. In a reverse strategy, the L1 chain aims to increase the supply of its native token with a 10-year lockup period to avoid an oversupply shock. 

To boost its development, Cronos announced the creation of a strategic reserve, as a tool to bring about the company’s new roadmap. The reserve’s creation hinges on a community vote, and will try to reverse the February 2021 token burn as the basis for the additional CRO supply. 

The new Cronos treasury, estimated at around $5B, was announced at a time when a US crypto reserve bill was announced, including a selection of widely known blue-chip tokens.

Vote to reissue CRO to run until March 17

The voting proposal and the vote itself start on March 3, and voting will run until March 17. Once accepted, the proposal will be implemented in the previously announced Cronos chain block. 

CRO voting in its earliest stage points to a positive view of the proposal, with a probability of a ‘yes’ vote. In the first day, only 0.5% of the CRO supply had exercised its right to vote, with 99.76% of early votes in favor of the new token mint. In the coming days, the quorum must reach 33.4% of all CRO with a right to vote, or the proposal will fall through.  

On social media, some of the reactions are negative, with skeptics pointing out that even a five-year monthly unlock was high enough to put pressure on the price. Currently, 27.3B CRO tokens are in circulation, with some locked for staking and in support of Crypto.com card accounts.

In 2021, Crypto.com destroyed 70B tokens in one of the biggest burns in the entire crypto industry. The tokens may be reissued on the Cronos Proof-of-Stake (PoS) chain, then held into a dedicated Cronos Strategic Reserve escrow wallet. The new issuance will bring CRO to its original supply of 100B tokens. 

Currently, CRO tokens have a regular five-year lockup. The reissued tokens will have an additional 5-year vesting period, with a linear monthly unlock. Cronos will use a Cosmos SDK vesting account mechanism based on block time. The new emission schedule will keep validator rewards the same. 

Cronos aims to revive the ‘Made in USA’ narrative

The Cronos 2025 roadmap aims to expand on the current achievements of the network. Cronos has survived multiple bull and bear cycles, as well as regulatory shifts. In 2024, Cronos emerged as the most widely used service for US-based traders, at one point surpassing Coinbase. The chain also expressed its interest in becoming a hub for AI agents at the end of 2024, though the trend has slowed down since then.

Crypto.com is currently in fourth place among global exchanges, surpassed by OKX, Coinbase, and Binance. The project supports 330 token pairs and keeps adding new assets. The exchange achieves over $7.2B in daily volumes. 

The recent vote revived the native CRO token, with a rally to a one-week high at $0.09. Despite the recent interest, CRO has not recovered its positions from the 2021 bull market, though the team has kept building. Currently, despite having three types of chains, CRO is still widely traded in its Ethereum-based version. 

Cronos also runs three interconnected blockchains, including Cronos EVM and zkEVM. Most of the activity, however, is on Cronos Proof-of-Stake. Cronos carries DeFi projects and passive yield. The chain also carries apps like VVS Finance, which offer simplified access to swaps and a high yield. 

Despite being one of the leading centralized markets, Cronos lags in its decentralized activity. The chain carries $407.8M in liquidity, comparable to more niche networks. The Cronos ZK-EVM is yet to prove it is a real zero-knowledge network, and has to resolve issues with its proposer and sequencer.

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