CEO Kris Marszalek faces a wave of sharp criticism after a suspected manipulated vote, while the exchange holds up to 80% of voting rights on the Cronos chain.
Crypto.com, one of the largest global cryptocurrency exchanges, is drowning in a strong wave of opposition from the community after the decision to reverse the "largest token burn in history" that they proudly announced in 2021. The decision to re-issue 70 billion Cronos (CRO) tokens has raised allegations of governance manipulation and breach of investor trust.
On March 19, CEO Kris Marszalek went on Twitter to reassure the community about the company's financial stability and regulatory compliance. However, this post was criticized for not addressing the core issue causing community outrage - the decision to re-issue 70 billion CRO tokens that were previously burned.
From "decentralization" commitment to controversial decision
In February 2021, Crypto.com proudly declared the "largest token burn in history" when they burned 70 billion CRO tokens. According to the blog post (now deleted), the goal of the burn was to "bring this network to a fully decentralized state" with the launch of the CRO mainnet.
"In line with our beliefs, and with the upcoming CRO mainnet launch, we will fully decentralize this network," the blog post clearly stated, simultaneously announcing the immediate burning of 59.6 billion tokens.
However, four years after this decision, on March 2, 2025, Cronos announced a vote to create a "Cronos Strategic Reserve Fund" by completely reversing the 2021 token burn, bringing the total supply back to the initial 100 billion CRO.
An investor commented: "One billion USD in profit, but needing to re-issue 70 billion CRO instead of using those funds to buy back some tokens in the market and help the community maintain positivity."
Despite strong opposition from the community on social media platforms, the voting results still leaned towards supporting the establishment of the Cronos Strategic Reserve Fund. This has caused a wave of controversy and accusations of vote manipulation.
"It's completely manipulation when last-minute voters choose 'yes.' Crypto.com is centralized to an unbelievable extent, and it shouldn't be when 70% of voting rights are in CDC's hands," a commentator on GitHub wrote.
According to information from Laura Shin's Unchained program, Crypto.com is said to control 70% to 80% of total voting rights on the Cronos chain, essentially nullifying the meaning of any governance vote.
Facing the wave of opposition, Crypto.com announced they will host a Q&A event on March 25, where the CRO burn issue will be the main topic. In his March 19 Twitter post, CEO Kris Marszalek used the hashtag "MakeCROGreatAgain", expressing a desire to restore community trust.
