Cronos' Controversial Bid: Reissuing $5.3B in CRO Tokens

The cronos team, backed by Crypto.com, has proposed a controversial governance plan to reissue 70 billion CRO tokens, worth over $5.3 billion, that were previously burned in 2021. The proposal aims to create a "Cronos Strategic Reserve" to support the chain's ambitious roadmap and America's crypto ambitions.

The proposal, outlined on the Cronos POS governance forum, suggests reissuing the burned CRO tokens into a strategic reserve escrow wallet, bringing the total supply back to the initial 100 billion CRO. The reissued CRO would be subject to a 10-year vesting period, unlocking linearly. However, no details about future plans for the reserved CRO were provided in the proposal.

The Cronos community has largely criticized the proposal, with concerns raised about the optics and potential supply dilution. Early voting results show that 95.7% of voting power, worth around 673 million CRO tokens, has voted against the proposal, while only 3.45% has voted in favor.

This is not the first time Cronos has proposed a governance change impacting the CRO supply. In November 2024, a proposal to burn 50 million CRO tokens, valued around $9 million at the time, was overwhelmingly approved by validators, with 95% of CRO voting power in favor.

At the time of writing, CRO is down 8% in the last 24 hours, trading at $0.076. The token is 92% off its all-time high of $0.96 from November 2021. Crypto.com did not respond to Decrypt's request for comment on the proposal.