TLDR
- Cronos proposes reissuing 70 billion previously burned CRO tokens worth $5.3-6.3 billion
- Tokens would form a “Cronos Strategic Reserve” with a 5-10 year vesting period
- The proposal aims to restore total supply to original 100 billion CRO
- Community response has been largely negative with 95.7% of early votes against
- CRO price dropped 8% in 24 hours following the proposal announcement
Cronos Labs, the team behind the Cronos blockchain linked to cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com, has put forward a governance proposal that seeks to reissue 70 billion CRO tokens previously burned in 2021. These tokens are currently valued at over $5.3 billion.
The proposal aims to restore the total CRO supply to its original 100 billion tokens. If approved, the reissued tokens would form what Cronos calls a “Cronos Strategic Reserve” that would be subject to a vesting period.
According to a blog post published by Cronos, the strategic reserve would “support the ambition” of making America the world capital of crypto. This references recent statements by President Donald Trump suggesting the creation of a United States crypto reserve.
“In 2021, 70 billion CRO were burnt in one of the most burn transactions in history,” the Cronos team wrote in their proposal. The burn was carried out ahead of the Cronos mainnet launch to support decentralization efforts.
Today, an ambitious proposal was published for voting on the Cronos POS governance forum.
The community is invited to vote on a bold plan to restore Cronos' Golden Age, with a massive investment allocated to support Cronos Roadmap (incl. its ETF) and America’s ambition to become… pic.twitter.com/7i06DnTx7T— Cronos (@cronos_chain) March 3, 2025
The new proposal would bring the total supply back to the initial 100 billion CRO. The reissued tokens would be placed in a strategic reserve escrow wallet on the Cronos proof-of-stake blockchain.
If the proposal passes, the reissued CRO would be subject to a vesting period. Different timeframes have been mentioned in reports, ranging from 5 to 10 years, with tokens unlocking linearly throughout this period.
The proposal does not provide specific details about future plans for the CRO set aside in the strategic reserve. This lack of clarity has contributed to community concerns about the proposal’s purpose.
Negative Reaction
Community reaction to the proposal has been largely negative. Users in the Cronos Discord expressed concern, with one member saying “the optics on this are terrible.” On X (formerly Twitter), users questioned whether this move would dilute the token supply.
Early voting results reflect this negative sentiment. Of the 16 validators who have voted so far (out of 100 active validators), 95.7% of voting power has been cast against the proposal. Only 3.45% of voting power has voted in favor.
The current voting represents around 673 million CRO tokens. This early voting trend suggests the proposal faces an uphill battle to gain approval from the community.
This proposal contrasts sharply with previous governance decisions. In November 2024, Proposal #28 voted on burning even more CRO tokens to reduce supply. That proposal received overwhelming support with 95% of voting power in favor.
The November 2024 proposal resulted in burning 50 million tokens valued around $9 million at the time. This history of reducing supply makes the current proposal to increase supply particularly controversial.
CRO Price
CRO’s price has reacted negatively to the proposal news. The token dropped 8% in the 24 hours following the announcement, trading at around $0.076. This represents a 92% decline from its all-time high of $0.96 reached in November 2021.
According to reports, Crypto.com also plans to file an exchange-traded fund (ETF) application for CRO. This move aims to capitalize on growing institutional interest in cryptocurrency investments.
Crypto.com initially launched the Monaco Coin (MCO) as part of its Visa Card program before transitioning to its proprietary blockchain. The company rebranded to Cronos in February 2021, with the mainnet going live in November 2021.
The CRO token currently has a circulating supply of approximately 27.3 billion tokens. The maximum supply cap stands at 30 billion tokens, giving it a market valuation of about $2.4 billion before the proposal.
Neither Crypto.com nor Cronos Labs has provided additional comments on the proposal when contacted by CoinCentral. The voting period continues as validators and stakeholders consider the potential implications of reissuing the previously burned tokens.
