The proposal to reissue 70 billion CRO tokens, previously burned in 2021 by the blockchain project Cronos affiliated with Crypto.com, received approval with active participation from the exchange.
The initiative garnered 62.2% of votes in favor. The quorum was 70.6%, surpassing the required threshold of 33.4%.
As a result of the upcoming protocol update on March 18, the total supply of the asset will return to the original 100 billion CRO.
The reissued coins, valued at approximately $5.9 billion at the time of writing, will form a strategic reserve for Cronos. The tokens will be placed in an escrow wallet with a five-year vesting period. The unlocking will occur in stages—monthly tranches of approximately 1.17 billion CRO.
The Cronos team, which proposed the idea of restoring the emission volume, explained this move as necessary for funding key points of the roadmap presented in February for Crypto.com and the blockchain ecosystem.
Users generally reacted negatively to the initiative to increase the CRO emission limit. Unchained podcast host Laura Shin noted that for most of the period from March 2-16, the number of “yes” votes barely exceeded the “no” votes. Moreover, the proposal did not initially reach the quorum.
For most of the proposal’s voting period, which ran from March 2-16, the yes votes barely outstripped the nos, but the project didn’t reach the quorum of votes needed.
— Laura Shin (@laurashin) March 17, 2025
A day before the end of the voting, major validators controlled by Crypto.com declared their position, “injecting” 3.35 billion CRO at once. This ensured the threshold was surpassed and the proposal was supported.
According to Shin, this involved three organizations. Based on the heat map of vote distribution, these are Electron, Antares, and Minotaur IV.
“At the last minute, Crypto.com went against the community’s will and pushed through the proposal to reissue CRO tokens that were supposedly permanently removed from circulation in 2021,” commented the journalist.
Co-founder of Sonic Andre Cronje sharply reacted to the voting results, indicating that they do not align with the principles of decentralization.
Tomorrow Cronos goes from $2.5bn mcap to $8.5bn mcap with a single vote and all it needed was a single voter.
1. mcaps are a meme.
2. Decentralization doesnt matter, until it does.
3. Immutability doesnt matter, until it does. https://t.co/eZ5Kpm9JFr— Andre Cronje (@AndreCronjeTech) March 18, 2025
“Tomorrow the market cap of Cronos will increase from $2.5 billion to $8.5 billion with just one vote, and it only needed one voter,” he stated.
One user noted that “unfortunately, 99% of DAOs operate this way.”
Immediately after the voting concluded, the Cronos team proposed burning 50 million CRO—approximately 0.07% of the volume to be restored.
Another 50M $CRO burn on the horizon ?
A 50M $CRO burn proposal has been submitted on #Cronos POS chain. If passed, another 50M CRO will go up in flames.
?️ Validators will vote over the next 2 weeks.
? Proposal details: https://t.co/rWKmB7qYsY
? Track voting status:… pic.twitter.com/83ne7HnVTN
— Cronos (@cronos_chain) March 17, 2025
“This is a slap in the face to all CRO holders,” Shin quoted an independent validator.
In the past 24 hours, the token has depreciated by approximately 8% and is trading near $0.08 (CoinGecko). This is nearly 92% below the all-time high of approximately $0.97, recorded in November 2021.
Back in January, media reported on a potential investigation by the CFTC into futures contracts on Crypto.com.