Daily News 19

Tag: Crypto.com

  • Crypto.com Repeatedly Rewrites Terms for CRO Holders

    Crypto.com Repeatedly Rewrites Terms for CRO Holders

    Crypto.com Slashes CRO Lockup Rewards by 25% or More

    Crypto.com announced it will reduce annual rewards on new $CRO lockups starting Thursday, cutting rates by at least 25% across its premium card tiers. The move marks another chapter in a multi-year pattern of roadmap revisions, retracted promotions, and altered token economics that have frustrated retail holders.

    New Lockup Rates Effective Thursday

    According to the update, the revised annual percentages for new lockups are:

    • Obsidian/Private tier: 6% (down from 9%)
    • Icy/Rose/Private tier: 5% (down from 8.5%)
    • Jade/Indigo/Pro tier: 3% (down from 4%)

    These reductions follow a 75% price decline for $CRO over the past year. Since its all-time high in November 2021, the token has lost 93% of its value, a drop that coincides with repeated benefit cuts, layoffs, and the recent Cronos blockchain outage that erased several hours of on-chain activity.

    From Monaco to Crypto.com: A History of Shifted Terms

    The current reward structure traces back to Monaco, Crypto.com’s predecessor. Monaco originally sold MCO with an “asset contract” funded by a 1% fee on certain card transactions, allowing holders to burn MCO for a proportional share of that contract. By late 2017, Monaco removed the asset contract from its roadmap, citing regulatory changes, and replaced it with a cashback rate of up to 2%.

    In November 2018, Crypto.com promised 60 monthly $CRO airdrops to eligible MCO holders over five years. The program ended in June 2019—roughly seven months in—with more than 50 scheduled distributions never delivered. The remaining allocation was redirected elsewhere.

    During 2020, the company pushed MCO holders to migrate to $CRO on a new blockchain contract, then ceased support for unswapped MCO across its product suite. While the MCO token technically survives on Ethereum, its company-backed utility does not.

    Card Benefits Continue to Contract

    In May 2022, Crypto.com cut cashback rates and initially planned to eliminate card staking rewards entirely after 180-day terms expired. Community backlash prompted a partial reversal within days, allowing existing users to retain prior rates until expiry.

    Since then, premium perks have steadily diminished:

    • Vendor rebates: Airbnb, Expedia, and Amazon Prime rebates—advertised for top tiers in 2020—will be removed from Icy, Rose, and Obsidian rewards programs by 2025.
    • Non-staking spend rewards: The 1% and 2% cashback on cards issued before November 6, 2024, has been eliminated.
    • Lounge access: Restricted in September 2025 to users with an active $CRO lockup, stake, or annual subscription. This month, Pro users saw annual visits halved, and Private tiers lost complimentary guest access in most markets.

    Token Burn Reversed: 70 Billion CRO Re-minted

    Perhaps the most consequential shift involves token supply. In February 2021, Crypto.com conducted a 70 billion $CRO burn, framing it as a step toward full decentralization. In 2025, the Cronos ecosystem—aligned with Crypto.com—announced plans to re-mint those same 70 billion tokens into a “Strategic Reserve,” effectively reversing the burn.

    Combined with the latest lockup reward cuts, the decision underscores a broader trend: retail investors have absorbed significant supply inflation and repeated benefit reductions while institutional partners appear to receive preferential treatment.

    As Crypto.com prepares to implement the new rates on Thursday, the community watches for further signals about the platform’s long-term commitment to its token holders and the stability of the Cronos network.

  • Crypto.com to Launch Prediction Markets Tracking AI Jobs and Adoption

    Crypto.com to Launch Prediction Markets Tracking AI Jobs and Adoption

    Crypto.com to Launch AI Prediction Contracts Based on Workplace and Consumer Trends

    Crypto.com will introduce prediction contracts allowing users to forecast how quickly artificial intelligence is changing workplaces, consumer behaviour and major industries.

    More than 20 contracts are expected to begin rolling out in September. Unlike prediction markets linked to elections or sporting events, these contracts will be settled using surveys and company disclosures that measure how people and businesses are adopting AI.

    Users will trade on future AI adoption trends

    Crypto.com and PYMNTS have agreed to an exclusive two-year partnership covering the new products, according to their announcement.

    The contracts will trade through OG Prediction Markets, an exchange and clearinghouse regulated by the US Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Crypto.com and other partners will provide access to the markets.

    The initial group of contracts will focus on consumer behaviour, workplace changes, corporate AI adoption, healthcare, retail and financial services. Around 25 additional contracts are expected to be added each quarter.

    Although the individual questions have not yet been published, a contract could ask whether AI use among American workers will exceed a specified level in an upcoming survey.

    Participants would trade based on their expectations for the survey results, with the outcome determining which contracts pay out. Users will not be betting directly on whether AI succeeds or fails. Instead, they will be forecasting what future research shows about AI adoption and its economic effects.

    PYMNTS data will determine contract outcomes

    The markets will rely exclusively on measurements produced by PYMNTS Intelligence.

    PYMNTS surveys 4,000 US adults each month about their use of AI in areas including work, education, shopping and healthcare.

    A separate quarterly survey of 500 US companies examines how businesses use AI agents and automation. The research tracks whether productivity has improved and how employment and software requirements have changed.

    PYMNTS will also review company filings, earnings materials and public statements for evidence of AI investment, revenue changes and workforce effects.

    The organization has collected nearly 30 months of historical data, which will provide a baseline for measuring future changes in AI adoption and its impact across the economy.

  • Cronos Halts Blockchain After $75 Million Exploit Hits Lending App Tectonic

    Cronos Halts Blockchain After $75 Million Exploit Hits Lending App Tectonic

    Cronos halted its entire blockchain on Sunday after an attacker exploited Tectonic, its largest lending platform, in an incident estimated to have drained roughly $75 million.

    How the Tectonic attack unfolded

    Cronos was launched by Crypto.com in 2021 and remains closely linked to the exchange, which uses the blockchain to provide lower-cost transactions for its products. CRO is the token Crypto.com promotes as the centre of its ecosystem. The network also hosts a small group of lending and trading applications, led by Tectonic.

    Tectonic allows users to deposit cryptocurrency and borrow other assets against it, similar to using a house as collateral for a loan.

    One of the tokens accepted as collateral was TONIC, Tectonic’s native token. TONIC had approximately $1.34 million in liquidity and around $11,000 in daily trading volume. Tectonic’s documentation warns that assets with low liquidity can be especially vulnerable to price manipulation.

    Blockchain data indicates that this weakness may have enabled the attack. The attacker drove TONIC’s price up by roughly 100 times in about 20 minutes, deposited the suddenly more valuable tokens into Tectonic and borrowed real assets against them.

    Source: cryptonews.net

  • Cronos Halts Network After Tectonic Exploit Estimated at $75 Million

    Cronos Halts Network After Tectonic Exploit Estimated at $75 Million

    Cronos Halts Blockchain After Tectonic Exploit Estimated at $75 Million

    Cronos halted its blockchain after an exploit targeting decentralized lending protocol Tectonic involved an estimated $75 million, with most of the funds still on the Cronos network at the time of writing.

    Cronos said on Sunday that it had identified an exploit in Tectonic and paused the network while investigating the incident. Tectonic separately warned users not to interact with the protocol. Neither project has confirmed the cause of the exploit or the amount lost, and no timeline for restarting the network had been announced at publication.

    Attacker exploited TONIC collateral factor and liquidity

    Researcher Weilin Li said the attacker exploited TONIC’s 20% collateral factor and limited liquidity. According to Li, the attacker drove the governance token’s price up 100-fold within 20 minutes before borrowing other assets. Li described the incident as a “Mango-market style” pump-and-borrow attack.

    Li initially estimated that $66 million was affected. He said the attacker bridged approximately $6 million to Ethereum before Cronos halted the network, leaving about $60 million on Cronos.

    Li later identified another attacker-controlled address holding approximately $8 million, raising his estimated loss to roughly $75 million.

    Crypto.com says its services were unaffected

    Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek said the company’s app and exchange were operating normally and were not affected by the exploit. He added that funds held on those services were safe.

    Cronos and Tectonic have not said whether they will restrict the attacker’s addresses, recover the assets or compensate affected users. Cointelegraph contacted both projects and Crypto.com for comment.