Crypto linked lending platform hit by exploit | Suvashree Ghosh

AN attacker drained at least $6 million from a Crypto.com-linked digital-asset lending platform after borrowing over $74 million by manipulating the price of tokens used as collateral, according to blockchain security firm PeckShield.

Validators that govern the Cronos blockchain froze all trading activity after discovering that the decentralized lending platform Tectonic was exploited on Sunday, PeckShield said in a post on X. The attacker pumped up the value of the native Tonic token by 300-fold within 20 minutes, according to CoinGecko data. The inflated tokens were then used as collateral to borrow other assets.

The total value cryptoassets deposited on Tectonic fell to $3 million from $122 million before the hack, according to data on DefiLlama.

Of the $74 million in borrowed cryptocurrency that PeckShield identified, only $6 million was bridged to Ethereum before the Cronos network was paused, preventing further cross-chain trading, according to the firm.

The breach has not impacted the centralized exchange Crypto.com, where all funds are safe, CEO Kris Marszalek said on X. An investigation is underway, he added. Crypto.com, which originally developed Cronos, didn’t confirm the amount affected, referring instead to public statements from Marszalek and Cronos on X.

Unlike exploits that target technical vulnerabilities in code, which have haunted blockchain projects for years, the Tectonic attack appears to have taken advantage of weak risk controls, according to security researchers.

“This was an economic exploit,” said Aneirin Flynn, CEO of cybersecurity technology firm FailSafe. “Tectonic had poorly configured their risk settings, the attacker artificially pumped the price of a cheap token and used that fake wealth to ‘borrow’ or steal” other assets, he said.

Crypto.com said it is working closely with Cronos Labs to roll back the blockchain to its status before the incident. They did not offer a timeline for restoring the network.

As a public blockchain, Cronos is a key part of Crypto.com’s ecosystem. The blockchain was launched in 2021, using CRO as its native token, which was previously known as Crypto.org Coin.

Other centralized exchanges have launched their own blockchains, including Binance Holdings with BNB Chain and Coinbase Global Inc. with Base. It can offer a way of keeping fees down and generating fresh revenues through token issuance.

For traders, CRO unlocks special perks in the Crypto.com ecosystem such as lower trading fees and additional cashback. The token was trading at 5 cents, down 1.4% from a day earlier, with a market value of $2.74 billion, according to CoinGecko data.

Last year, Cronos was also part of a tie-up between Crypto.com and Trump Media & Technology Group, founded by US President Donald Trump. The companies planned to collaborate on a publicly traded firm that would stockpile CRO. That deal fell apart earlier this month.

The incident follows other high-profile attacks this year that have raised the scrutiny of decentralized-finance systems. An exploit in April that drained nearly $300 million from a restaking protocol led to a collapse in liquidity on Aave, the largest decentralized lending protocol.

The number of crypto attacks is up this year. TRM Labs identified 207 attacks in the first half of 2026, the largest number it has recorded in a six-month period, according to a report. However, the total $972 million in stolen assets was less than half the $2.3 billion taken in the first half of 2025.