Cronos halts after Tectonic exploit, with attacker estimated to borrow about $75 million

The Cronos network halted after an exploit impacted the lending protocol Tectonic ^{[1] [2]}.

Wu Blockchain reported that on-chain researcher Weilin Li estimated the attacker pumped the illiquid TONIC token price by roughly 100x, then used the inflated collateral to borrow about $75 million in other assets ^[1].

Wu Blockchain and Blockonomi reported that TONIC rose about 100-fold (in Wu Blockchain, over an unspecified timeframe; in Blockonomi, over roughly 20 minutes) and that preliminary losses were around $75 million ^{[1] [3]}.

Wu Blockchain and Blockonomi reported that only about $6 million was bridged to Ethereum before Cronos halted, leaving most exploit-linked assets stranded on Cronos ^{[1] [3]}.

Wu Blockchain stated that Tectonic had not confirmed the amount involved or the root cause, and that Crypto.com said its app and exchange were not compromised ^[1].

Coinpedia reported a different figure, stating $119.5 million was at risk following the Tectonic lending exploit ^[4].

Crypto Briefing attributed the Cronos halt to DeFi protocol vulnerabilities and emphasized the need for stronger security measures to prevent future exploits ^[2].