Cronos (CRO)

Introduction

If you were scrolling the internet or following some major sports series over the past year, you have probably stumbled across logos of famous crypto companies as sponsors. They are becoming increasingly popular, but one of the companies has taken this to a new level by purchasing and renaming the Staples Center. Yes, we are talking about Crypto.com and their blockchain network Cronos.

Cronos is a programmable blockchain network created by Crypto.com exchange with a native cryptocurrency called CRO. It is the second most popular blockchain network created by an exchange, right behind Binance’s BNB.

What is Unique About Cronos?

The first thing that comes to mind when talking about Crypto.com and Cronos is their marketing approach. Instead of focusing on backing and raising investments, they have decided to go with an influencer approach of crafting major sponsorships, increasing the exchange’s popularity and the token itself.

Also, CRO is one of the few tokens with no private or public sales, making the token 100% decentralized.

Token Information

How can you use your CRO tokens?

CRO token is used for paying the network fees on Cronos Chain, staking and earning yield, and is providing discounts for using it in the Crypto.com ecosystem.

Price History

At the time of writing (May 16th, 2022), Cronos’s price is $0.189. The current Market Cap ranking is #19, with a market cap of $4.7B.

Cronos closed the previous year on a high note, reaching its all-time high price of $0.9 in December. That is an impressive 18x return over its price at the start of 2021, which was $0.05. At the beginning of 2022, the cryptocurrency market experienced a market correction that saw every cryptocurrency fall in price, including Cronos.

The major price movements of Cronos are tightly correlated with Crypto.com making significant partnerships with many of the world’s prominent companies and industries.

Tokenomics

Cronos initially had a supply of 100B tokens until it decided to burn 70b tokens and have a maximum supply of 30B.

Currently, there are 25.2B tokens in circulation. Cronos has not had any private sales or an Initial Coin Offering, making the whole supply wholly reserved for the network participants.

Where to Buy CRO?

Cronos is the second most popular crypto exchange token out there. Alongside a vast supply fully committed to the network’s participants, it is seeing an increase in demand.

The primary way people buy their CRO is through centralized exchanges because they offer the ability to purchase them with credit\debit cards, which most people prefer.

Although significantly more complicated, the second way is through decentralized exchanges such as Uniswap. Decentralized exchanges usually require users to already have some cryptocurrencies in their wallets to buy other cryptos.

Finally, it can be purchased easily through a broker app such as our Veli App, where you can get your hands on some CRO in just a few taps on the screen.

The Team

Crypto.com was launched in 2016 by Kris Marszalek, Rafael Melo, Gary Or, and Bobby Bao.

Kris Marszalek founded and headed three companies before starting Crypto.com.

Rafael Melo has worked with large Asian corporations and helped achieve over 50 million AUD in investment for the Ensogo social commerce website throughout his more than 15-year career in finance.

Gary Or is a full-stack software developer with over nine years of experience. Or worked as a platform architect at Ensogo and co-founded the mobile app development startup Foris before co-founding Crypto.com.

Bobby Bao worked in the M&A section of the China Renaissance investment bank before helping to create Crypto.com.

The Roadmap

The official roadmap of Cronos states that they are working on significant upgrades to its protocol and network for 2022. Some of the upgrades that we can expect are:

  • Protocol and Database optimization: Cronos will increase its block size and make them faster, meaning it will be able to process more transactions even quicker than now.
  • Transaction Fees: An upgrade to the transaction fee model will make Cronos more cost-efficient for users.
  • Tooling and Infrastructure: Cronos will continue to expand its set of tools available to developers to further scale and build more apps on its network.
  • Protocol Governance: In 2022, Cronos is looking to increase the number of validators to see the network become more decentralized.
  • Gaming: Cronos is already a home for many DeFi, NFT, and Metaverse applications. However, they are looking to expand into Gaming, with a focus on mobile blockchain gaming.
  • Decentralized Apps: Cronos is looking to expand its arsenal of decentralized applications built on the network by creating several grant funds worth multiple millions of $ to furtherly incentivize developers and users to continue building out the ecosystem.

Community Growth

Crypto.com has a vibrant community around its products and Cronos, with them being present on every major social media platform and having dedicated Telegram and news groups for 30+ countries of the world.

Sponsorships

Instead of backers like most cryptocurrencies out there, Cronos has decided to take the scenic route and craft high-profile sponsorships instead.

Formula One, Serie A, the UFC, Paris Saint-Germain F.C., the Philadelphia 76ers, the Montreal Canadiens, and Water.org are among Crypto.com’s famous partners. Water.org’s relationship featured the addition of actor Matt Damon as a brand ambassador for Crypto.com.

The business purchased the naming rights to Los Angeles’ Staples Center in November 2021, renaming it Crypto.com Arena in a 20-year agreement worth an estimated US$700 million.

Finally, Crypto.com has inked a sponsorship agreement with FIFA, making it the Official Sponsor of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

Legal Activity

Crypto.com has not faced any outstanding legal issues so far.

Competition

Cronos’s main competitors are BNB and Ethereum.

Ethereum is the world’s first programmable blockchain. The main difference between Cronos and Ethereum is that Cronos is cheaper and faster than the current version of Ethereum.

BNB is the first programmable blockchain created by a crypto exchange. Binance and Crypto.com are two of the biggest crypto exchanges in the world, and the main discrepancies between the networks are that Cronos is slower but cheaper than Binance’s BNB.

Here are some additional numbers that illustrate this competition

 

BNB     

 Ethereum 

Cronos

Transactions per second

55-60

15

17.94

Time needed to confirm a transaction

<5s

6 min

5-6s

Average transaction fee

0.31$

15$

0.02$

Market cap

$60b

$310b

$7.4b

Circulation supply

98.89%

not hard-capped

83.48%

Total number of wallet addresses

155.6m

150.6m

951.6m

Total number of daily active users

1.2m

509k

913k

Launch date

2017

2015

2018

Average growth rate

211.40%

178.20%

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Potential Risks

There are obvious risks associated with investing in crypto, just as there are with any other asset class. Because there are so many distinct types of cryptocurrencies, risks may be categorized into two groups: general risks that apply to all cryptocurrencies and coin-specific risks.

We’ve put up a guide that covers general cryptocurrency investing risks and offers tips on how to mitigate them, while risks particular to individual coins are covered in coin guides such as this one.

Cronos Investing Risks

  • Competition: Cronos has vast competition when it comes to being a token created by a cryptocurrency exchange. Additionally, it wants to expand to programmable blockchain waters adding more tough competitors like Ethereum and BNB.

Useful Links

Conclusion

Crypto.com is a major cryptocurrency exchange that is spreading crypto adoption worldwide. With many features available from DeFi, and Crypto.com Visa Card to the NFTs market, Crypto.com is always following the trends and adding something new to its functionality. Their extensive marketing campaigns, collaborating with famous people and entities, from Matt Damon to F1, UFC, Paris Saint Germain, and Aston Martin Cognizant Formula One Team have succeeded in raising the number of users on their exchange.

Crypto.com is one of the biggest and most used crypto exchanges of today, and with the hard-working and sharp team behind it alongside a hefty roadmap ahead, we can only sit back and see where it is headed from here.