Crypto.com is facing serious accusations from renowned blockchain investigator ZachXBT, who alleges that the exchange reissued 70 billion CRO tokens previously declared “permanently burned” in 2021—a move he calls a betrayal of trust and “borderline fraud.” The controversy erupted after Trump Media announced a partnership with Crypto.com to launch ETFs on March 24. Crypto.com will handle backend technology, custody services, and supply cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Cronos for the ETFs.
ZachXBT, who has built a reputation dismantling scams across the crypto landscape, took to X to denounce the token reissuance and question the motivations behind Truth Social’s choice of Crypto.com as a partner. He wrote: “CRO is no different from a scam. Your team just reissued 70B CRO a week ago that was previously burned ‘forever’ in 2021 (70% total supply) and went against the community wishes as you control majority of the supply. Unsure why Truth would choose a partnership with your exchange over Coinbase, Kraken, Gemini, etc after this move by your team. h/t Unchained Crypto for the data.”
In a follow-up post, ZachXBT further clarified the scale of the issue: “Ya originally the total CRO supply was 100B. In 2021 they burned 70B of the CRO supply. Everyone between that time and now bought expecting 30B CRO would be max supply. Now 1-2 weeks ago they reissue the 70B CRO burned permanently. I’ve never seen anything like it (from a major company).”
The reissuance came to light after Unchained reported that Cronos Labs, Crypto.com’s blockchain development arm, quietly proposed a governance vote on March 2 to mint 70 billion CRO back into circulation. The proposal, unveiled the same day as Trump’s announcement of a national strategic Bitcoin reserve.
Crypto.com Token Burn Reversal Shocks Community
Crypto.com originally conducted the massive burn in 2021, eliminating 70% of CRO’s total supply—a historically large reduction designed to bolster token value and trust in the project’s long-term viability. At the time, community sentiment was overwhelmingly positive.
Indeed, CRO surged during the 2021 bull run, rising 87% from $0.13 in February to $0.96 by December. Today, however, the token trades at just $0.10, reflecting a 90% decline from its all-time high. The sudden reversal of what was presented as an immutable burn has ignited outrage from token holders.
Concerns extend beyond financial dilution to crypto’s foundational principle of immutability. In blockchain networks, token burns are final—a fundamental premise understood across the industry. Tokens sent to a burn address are irretrievable, akin to losing the private key to a wallet permanently. Major protocols like Binance, Ethereum and Shiba Inu operate burn mechanisms that reinforce this permanence. Notably, neither has ever reissued burned tokens.
On March 17, the proposal was adopted. Remarkably, the vote was turned around at the last minute by large validators operated by Crypto.com, which according to three different sources controls between 70-80% of the total voting rights.
At press time, CRO traded at $0.10.
Featured image created with DALL.E, chart from TradingView.com
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