First published 18 May 2020, when CRO was an exchange token and neither chain was open. Expanded in October 2026 for the two networks, the supply that was burned and then voted back, and the afternoon validators rewound. CRO is the token of Crypto.com, the company that grew out of Monaco, and it is the coin that pays fees on the chains in that brand. An app can show one CRO balance and still mean a row in the company’s database, an ERC-20 on Ethereum, the native coin of Cronos POS, or the gas coin of the Cronos EVM chain. Those are four different things.
What is BNB? is the older pattern: an exchange token that later paid for a chain. An exchange balance is an IOU, not a wallet. Fee discounts and card perks are rules of a Crypto.com account. They do not travel with a coin you withdrew.
The token was older than the chain
Crypto.com already had a token called MCO, from a 2017 sale. CRO circulated beside it. In August 2020 the company opened a swap, inside its own app, and told MCO holders to move to CRO before 2 November 2020. The swap did not happen by itself. MCO that was never swapped is still an old Ethereum token the company said it would stop honouring in its products. It is not CRO. A site that offers to finish that swap now is not the 2020 window.
Crypto.org Chain, a Cosmos proof-of-stake network, opened on 25 March 2021. It was later renamed Cronos POS. Addresses there start with cro. The Cronos EVM chain opened on 8 November 2021. It speaks the Ethereum virtual machine, its chain id is 25, and its addresses start with 0x. They are not Ethereum addresses. The same characters on Ethereum are a different notebook. In February 2022 the token’s name changed from Crypto.org Coin to Cronos. The ticker stayed CRO. A rename is not a migration.
The project’s own documentation has told holders that a third network, Cronos zkEVM, is being shut, and to move assets off it before it is decommissioned. A deposit screen that still offers that network is offering a path the project is closing. The wrong network is still the wrong city.
A burn, then a vote that reversed it
The stated supply began at 100 billion. In February 2021, 70 billion CRO were burned, and the figure people quoted became 30 billion. In March 2025 a governance vote on Cronos POS reissued those 70 billion into a strategic-reserve wallet and put the stated supply back at 100 billion. The project describes that wallet as vesting over years. It is not a claim that every reissued coin was for sale on the day of the vote. A page that still says the supply is 30 billion is describing the token from before that March. A burn a later vote can reverse is not a permanent cap.
Cronos rolled back ~11,000 blocks after Tectonic. That is a validator choice, not finality is the afternoon in August 2026 when validators halted the EVM chain and restored an earlier height. The exchange was described as separate infrastructure. CRO the gas coin, CRO the exchange balance, and a lending app on the chain are three roles. Nothing here is an instruction to buy, stake, or bridge CRO.
