“Forced” re-minting of 70 billion CRO, decentralized governance becomes a joke?

You've heard of chain rollbacks, but have you heard of token "rollbacks"? "Tomorrow Cronos' market cap will go from $2.5 billion to $8.5 billion with just one vote, and that only requires one voter."

This is what Andre Cronje, co-founder of Sonic, said about Cronos on the X platform, and it is also a true reflection of the entire crypto community's response to this controversial decision.

Yesterday, Cronos passed a controversial proposal to recast 70 billion CRO tokens. Ironically, this batch of tokens was officially announced as "permanently destroyed" as early as 2021, and the current circulating supply of CRO is only 27.3 billion. This decision is almost equivalent to doubling the total supply of CRO in an instant.

In addition, the voting process is full of doubts, and the subsequent operations of the project party are even more intriguing. This article will analyze this farce in depth to see how "magical" it is.

"Resurrected" tokens catch up with the ETF craze

Cronos is an EVM-compatible chain developed by Crypto.com, which aims to massively expand the DeFi ecosystem, support developers to port applications of Ethereum and EVM-compatible chains, and reach Crypto.com's user base. In 2021, Cronos announced the destruction of 70 billion CRO tokens to reduce the circulating supply and send a signal of long-term commitment to the market. However, four years later, this promise of "permanent destruction" was subverted.

On March 2, Cronos Labs proposed to recast these 70 billion CRO tokens, equivalent to 70% of the initial supply, to create a so-called "strategic reserve." If the proposal is passed, the total supply of CRO will instantly soar from 30 billion to 100 billion.

Cronos Labs has put on the cloak of a "grand blueprint" for this proposal, claiming that the strategic reserve will be used to promote the adoption of CRO, and plans to launch the world's first ETF created by a token issuer-CRO spot ETF. They painted an ambitious picture: connecting CRO to the institutional liquidity pool through Cronos ETF, accelerating its institutionalization process, and striving to rank among the top ten global cryptocurrency market capitalizations.

Behind the scenes: Crypto.com controls 70-80% of voting rights

During the two-week voting period, the number of votes in favor was always slightly higher than the number of votes against, maintaining a delicate balance. However, because the voting rate did not break the 33.4% threshold, the situation was deadlocked for a time.

At the critical moment when the voting was about to end, 335 million CRO tokens suddenly poured into the "support" camp, pushing the voting rate to break the legal threshold and significantly raising the support rate.

The final voting results came out: 61.18% in favor, 17.61% against, 20.11% abstained, 0.11% vetoed, and the total voting rate reached 70.18%, far exceeding the minimum requirement. This dramatic reversal has plunged the entire community into greater doubts.

According to UnChained, three independent sources revealed that the winner of this vote is actually in the hands of Crypto.com itself. The large verification nodes operated by the company control 70-80% of the total voting rights, almost determining the final result.

"Placebo" to cover one's ears and steal the bell

After the vote was passed, Cronos proposed a new proposal to destroy 50 million CRO (only 0.07% of the newly minted tokens), claiming to continue the previous destruction plan. According to historical destruction records, Cronos will carry out two phases of destruction each year, 50 million CRO per phase, a total of 100 million CRO per year.

This move is more like a farce of "covering one's ears and stealing the bell". A community member sarcastically said: "This is simply a slap in the face of all CRO holders. They re-minted 70 billion CROs while pretending to destroy 50 million. Do they want to appease the community with such a small move?"

The collapse of trust is more fatal than the increase in token issuance

Cronos' decision this time is not only a damage to its own brand image, but also a blow to the core rules and consensus of the crypto industry. Sonic co-founder Andre Cronje's sharp comments go straight to the heart of the matter: "Market value is a meme; decentralization doesn't matter until it becomes important; immutability doesn't matter until it becomes important."

If the rules can be tampered with at will, the promise is meaningless. The crypto market has always been forgetful, but how many times can it withstand the overdraft of trust?