Say goodbye to Crypto.com Coin, and hello to “Cronos” – the popular crypto exchange’s new name for its CRO utility token. The token, which is native to the Crypto.org and Cronos EVM chains, will see neither its ticker symbol nor mechanics change.
Crypto.com announced its rebranding in a medium blog post earlier today. It said that the new name is meant to reflect the “decentralization of the coin and tremendous growth of the Cronos ecosystem.”
When asked about the connection, the company said it pays respect to the hundreds of independent dapp developers building out applications on Cronos. The majority of them are not “formally associated” with the exchange.
“The Cronos ecosystem represents the next major phase in the adoption and utilization of Web3 by hundreds of millions of users,” reads the announcement.
Cronos is a blockchain network launched by Crypto.com in November, which is compatible with Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). This means it can easily incorporate DeFi, GameFi, and Metaverse applications that run on Ethereum into its protocol, while also building new ones. It also features interoperability with the Cosmos ecosystem.
The company ensures users that there will be “no changes to functionality” for Cronos, and that it “continues to support the Cronos (CRO) token across its products and services.”
At present, the popular crypto price tracker CoinGecko has listed CRO under its new name. It is now ranked 17th, with a market cap of $11 billion. However, CoinMarketCap still lists the token as “Crypto.com coin”.
Adoption of the Cronos chain has scaled rapidly since launch. It now contains over 350,000 unique addresses on-chain, with $15 million in trading volume and $2.5 billion TVL. That makes it the 10th ranked DeFi platform by value locked within about four months.
Crypto.com is now inviting more developers to apply for funding from its $100 million ecosystem fund at Particle B. There are at least 120 devs that have already built on the platform.
Last Sunday, Crypto.com showcased an ad at the Bengals vs Rams superbowl match, featuring basketball legend Lebron James. The company has also recruited famous actor Matt Damon for promotional services, who is part of the exchange’s home page ad.