Cronos

CRO was issued by Crypto.com, led by co-founder and CEO Kris Marszalek, in November 2018. Cronos Labs, part of the Crypto.com ecosystem, submits the main Cronos POS governance proposals and keeps changing the token model. The v7 upgrade, passed in May 2026, added inflation decay, time-locked staking tiers and a path for ecosystem revenue to fund staking rewards. Proposal 37, in voting until 3 October 2026, would use all product revenue from Ult and Cronos Launch to repurchase and burn CRO monthly. Development is well funded but centralised: the Cronos EVM chain runs on Proof of Authority with 33 validators admitted by invitation only.

• Cronos POS Chain REST: governance Proposal 33 (v7 upgrade)
• Cronos POS Chain REST: governance Proposal 37
• Cronos docs: General FAQ
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Institutional interest in CRO is mostly at the level of plans. Citadel Securities invested $400 million in Crypto.com in July 2026, but in the company, not in CRO. Yorkville America filed in February 2026 for an ETF that would hold and stake CRO, and no US spot CRO fund was confirmed as trading. A planned CRO treasury company with Trump Media was terminated on 7 August 2026. Ownership and voting are concentrated around the issuer: about 70 billion CRO sit in a Strategic Reserve vesting monthly, and in March 2025 a last-minute vote of about 3.35 billion CRO carried the reissue, with critics suspecting Crypto.com controls those validators.

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• The Block: Cronos blockchain to reissue 70 billion burned tokens from 2021 as controversial vote gets approved

In March 2025 governance reissued 70 billion CRO that had been burned in 2021, bringing total supply back toward the 100 billion maximum. The tokens went to a Strategic Reserve vesting linearly over five years, about 1.167 billion CRO a month. On 27 September 2026 total supply was about 98.95 billion CRO, with about 49.75 billion in circulation. On-chain inflation is 1% a year, and the v7 upgrade adds a monthly decay toward zero. Proposal 37 would repurchase and burn CRO with product revenue, but it is a signalling vote and gives no revenue figures. Reversing a past burn shows that supply rules can change by vote.

• Cronos POS Chain REST: governance Proposal 29 (V5 upgrade, final tally)
• Cronos POS Chain REST: bank supply of basecro
• Cronos POS Chain REST: mint parameters
• GitHub crypto-org-chain/chain-main Discussion #1291: A New Era for CRO

On 27 September 2026 about 14.48 billion CRO, about 14.6% of total supply, was bonded on the Cronos POS Chain, a low share for a proof-of-stake network. Cronos EVM, where fees are paid in CRO, uses Proof of Authority with 33 invited validators, so block production is not open. Staking rewards still come mainly from new issuance plus fees. No facts on transaction counts, fee totals or value locked on Cronos were available, so data on real usage are insufficient. Most CRO use appears to sit inside Crypto.com's own apps, where it is tied to account perks.

• Cronos POS Chain REST: staking pool
• Cronos docs: General FAQ
• Crypto.com Earn