A controversial proposal within the Cronos ecosystem concluded late Monday, with community members voting to increase the token supply from 30 billion CRO to 100 billion CRO over a ten-year vesting schedule.
This decision came after weeks of the community expressing resistance to the change, but several influential CRO holders — or “whales” — rallied in the final hours of the voting period, pushing it toward approval.
This initiative, linked to the crypto exchange Crypto.com, recently aimed to reissue 70 billion CRO that had been burned in 2021, intending to restore its initial supply of 100 billion tokens for a “Strategic Reserve.”
The proposed plan, worth an estimated $5 billion at the current price of $0.08 per CRO, aimed to enhance U.S. crypto dominance, support ecosystem expansion, and launch a CRO ETF. Initial community response was overwhelmingly negative, with 86% opposing it in the first days of voting.
However, governance in the crypto space is often more about community-led appearances; major token holders can sway any proposals significantly, despite the intention for votes to reflect community opinion transparently.
The proposal, open for voting from March 2-16, initially fell short of the required 33.4% quorum to pass. However, at 14:00 UTC on Monday, a sudden influx of 3.35 billion CRO votes turned the tide, achieving quorum and finalizing the outcome: 61.18% voted in favor, 17.61% against, 20.11% abstained, and 0.11% vetoed.
In support of the initiative, two influential validator networks, Starship and Falcon Heavy, had endorsed it by March 10, though they were outnumbered at that point with 77.97% opposed and 8.47% abstaining. On Monday, additional validators including Electron, Antares, and Minotaur IV contributed approximately 3.2 billion CRO in voting power to support the proposal.
Following the vote, the Cronos network had an upgrade scheduled just hours later, which successfully concluded on March 18 at 03:00 UTC, setting the stage for more than a 200% rise in supply over the coming years.
In reaction to these developments, traders noted an 8.5% drop in CRO within the last 24 hours amid an otherwise stable market.