Cronos Network Pauses Operations After Tectonic Attack, Losses Estimated at Approximately $75 Million

Cronos Network, associated with Crypto.com, has paused operations after detecting an attack on the lending protocol Tectonic. Cronos Network stated on X that it identified a vulnerability on Tectonic and paused the network. Tectonic also confirmed it is investigating the incident and advised users not to interact with the protocol until safety is confirmed.

According to DefiLlama data, Tectonic had a total value locked of approximately $121.7 million and active loans of about $82.7 million before the incident. Blockchain researcher Weilin Li attributed the attack to price manipulation of the TONIC token. The attacker bought enough TONIC within 20 minutes to push its price up roughly 100 times, then used the inflated tokens as collateral to borrow other assets from Tectonic, a method similar to the Mango Markets oracle manipulation attack in 2022.

Li initially estimated the attacker's profit at approximately $66 million, then discovered an additional $8 million in another attacker-controlled address, bringing the total estimate to about $75 million. Li also noted that the attacker only managed to bridge approximately $6 million to Ethereum, and the Cronos network pause prevented most affected assets from flowing out. Crypto.com CEO Kris Marsalek stated that the company's app and exchange were not affected by the attack, and its security team is assisting Tectonic with the investigation.

[ChainCatcher]