Cronos halts network after Tectonic exploit involving estimated $75M
Cronos paused its blockchain after an exploit hit the Tectonic decentralized lending protocol, with losses estimated at about $75 million. The network was halted after Cronos identified the issue, while Tectonic told users not to interact with the protocol during its investigation. Neither project has confirmed the exact cause, total loss, or a restart timeline. Security researcher Weilin Li said the attack used Tectonic’s 20% collateral factor and shallow liquidity to rapidly inflate the TONIC governance token’s price about 100-fold in 20 minutes, then borrow other assets in a “Mango-market style” pump-and-borrow exploit. Li first estimated $66 million in damage, later raising the total to roughly $75 million after identifying another attacker-controlled address. About $6 million was bridged to Ethereum before the halt, leaving most of the funds on Cronos. Crypto.com said its app and exchange were unaffected and funds there were safe.
