Crypto.com Witnessed a Ludicrous Governance Farce, Holding 70% of Voting Power to Forcefully Issue an Additional 70 Billion CRO Tokens

2025-03-18 22:09

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Original Article Title: "Crypto.com Forces Through Controversial Vote to Re-Mint 70 Billion CRO"
Original Source: unchainedcrypto

Original Article Translation: Symbol; Paper Box Ninja

Editor's Note: Several weeks ago, Crypto.com proposed a re-minting of 70 billion destroyed CRO tokens. During the two-week voting period, the participation fell short of the required quorum, risking the proposal's invalidation. However, on the day before the deadline, a sudden influx of 3.3 billion CRO tokens from a voter pushed the proposal to an overwhelming approval. This late voter turned out to be Crypto.com itself.

On Sunday, what seemed like a likely failed proposal — aimed at minting 70 billion CRO to offset the token burn in 2021 and reintroduce them into circulation — spent most of the voting period (March 2 to 16) with a narrow lead in favor but failed to reach the statutory quorum of 33.4%.

However, a dramatic turn of events occurred at 14:00 UTC on Sunday, where suddenly 3.5 billion CRO tokens were added to the 'Yes' votes, meeting the required threshold for the proposal to pass and vastly exceeding the minimum standard. The statistics showed: 61.18% in favor, 17.61% against, 20.11% abstained, and 0.11% rejected; with an overall voter turnout of 70.18%, far above the required 33.4%.

The last-minute surge in voting led to the proposal's passing. Source: Mintscan

The sudden vote surge has left many disgruntled CRO holders feeling even more aggrieved, believing that the trust between Crypto.com and the holders has been significantly damaged. "Very disappointed,” a CRO whale commented on Telegram, “they almost all centralized at the last minute, setting a malignantly emulatable precedent for other projects."

The crux of this controversy lies in the fact that most of the votes came from large validators operated by Crypto.com. Three independent sources indicated that these validators control 70% to 80% of the total voting power. As of March 10, only two of its validators—Starship and Falcon Heavy—voted in favor. Despite the 'Yes' vote accounting for a mere 11.86%, substantially lower than the 77.97% 'No' vote and 8.47% abstained, it did not prevent the proposal from passing.

A representative from Crypto.com declined to comment on the matter.

As of the March 10 voting results, data source: Mintscan

As the vote neared its end, three additional validators controlled by Crypto.com—Electron, Antares, and Minotaur IV—also joined the approval camp; furthermore, two smaller independent validators, Cosmostation and Polkachu.com, indicated their support, although their votes had minimal impact on the final result.

Final voting results, data source: Mintscan

With the proposal's approval, the Cronos blockchain will undergo an upgrade tomorrow, during which 700 billion new tokens will be minted, while the 700 billion tokens burned in 2021 will remain out of circulation. These new tokens will be gradually released according to a five-year vesting schedule and will support various functionalities, including launching a potential CRO ETF.

However, the actions of the Crypto.com team did not stop there. Just one day after the voting concluded, the team introduced a proposal to burn 50 million CRO tokens (equivalent to 0.07% of the newly minted tokens) to supplement the three previous burns of the same amount. A CRO validator who voted against the re-minting proposal on Telegram angrily wrote, "This is an insult to all CRO holders. How dare you propose to burn 50 million tokens on the same day you are re-minting 700 billion tokens?"

Voting on this new proposal will continue for the next two weeks.