Cronos blockchain restarts after $74 million Tectonic exploit

The Cronos blockchain network has resumed trading activity after a price-manipulation attack on the Tectonic cryptocurrency lending platform allowed an attacker to borrow $74 million.

According to current information, the threat actor artificially inflated the price of Tectonic’s TONIC token by 100 times, then used it as collateral to borrow real assets. The price manipulation happened in 20 minutes.

Despite the massive amount the exploit generated, the attacker only managed to steal roughly $6 million worth of Ethereum, the rest of the funds being “stuck” on Cronos, says blockchain security and data analytics company PeckShield.

Cronos is an Ethereum-like blockchain network associated with Crypto.com, while Tectonic is a decentralized finance (DeFi) lending app running on Cronos.