In a dramatic turn, Crypto.com’s proposal to mint 70B CRO tokens - effectively reversing a 2021 token burn - has been approved. For weeks, the vote hung in the balance, barely inching towards the 33.4% quorum. But at the eleventh hour, a sudden injection of 3.35B CRO tipped the scales, securing approval. The tokens have since been minted on Cronos and will vest over five years. The market response? CRO slid 9% from $0.89 to $0.81.

Meanwhile, Ethena is taking a different route, doubling down on real-world assets with Converge, its new blockchain built in partnership with Securitize. Unlike traditional networks, Converge ditches native gas tokens, opting for stablecoins like USDe and USDtb instead. The network will serve as a compliance-friendly issuance layer for tokenized assets, while also housing both permissionless DeFi and exclusive permissioned protocols. Secured by validators staking Ethena’s ENA token, Converge is set to go live in Q2, with heavyweights like Morpho Labs, Maple Finance, and Pendle already on board. ENA holders, however, didn’t seem too hyped - its price dipped 3.4% to $0.364 post-announcement.