What is the Cronos chain?

Cronos is an Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) compatible chain running in parallel to the Crypto.org chain. Before launching Cronos, the Crypto.com ecosystem comprised of the Crypto.com chain and the Crypto.com centralised exchange.

Cronos is running on a Proof of Authority (PoA) consensus algorithm and is powered by Ethermint — a Proof of Stake (PoS) chain interoperable with Ethereum.

It aims to massively scale the chain’s decentralised finance ecosystem, by allowing developers to rapidly port apps and smart contracts from Ethereum and other EVM-compatible chains.

Cronos core features

EVM Compatible — With Ethermint, Cronos is able to support any smart contracts, Decentralized Autonomous Organisations (DAOs) or Decentralised Applications (Dapps) deployed on Ethereum.

Scalable — Tendermint can process more transactions per minute than the EVM, making it faster, cheaper and greener to execute the smart contracts.

Interoperable — The Inter-Blockchain Communication (IBC) is a protocol that allows interactions between blockchains. It helps Cronos to interoperate and transfer value, interchange assets and services, and bridge to the Crypto.org Chain, and other IBC-enabled chains, such as Cosmos Hub without running into scaling issues.

Easy deployment — Users can follow the deployment instruction to quickly and easily deploy Cronos network for any purpose.

Setting up your wallet

If you haven’t already, you will need to set up a hot wallet. A recommended Cronos compatible wallet would be MetaMask.

The settings are as follows:
Network Name: Cronos
New RPC URL: https://evm-cronos.crypto.org
Chain ID: 25
Currency Symbol: CRO
Block Explorer URL: https://cronos.crypto.org/explorer/

(Also Read: How To Set Up MetaMask for Cronos Network — Crypto.org EVM Chain)

Once you have added the custom RPC, you are ready to start exploring the ecosystem.

Yield farming on Cronos

Despite only going live on 8 November 2021, there are plenty of Dapps built on the Cronos ecosystem already. Here are the top 3 TVL protocols; they are VVS Finance, MM Finance and Tectonic.

There are plenty of opportunities in the ecosystem to gain interest on your assets. From farming to staking to lending and borrowing protocols and others.

VVS Finance

VVS Finance is the runaway leader in the Cronos ecosystem in terms of TVL with a massive USD $1.29 billion locked and a dominance of 56.36% according to DeFi Llama.

The rates here are pretty good considering that the highest APR farm comes in at 116.33% and the highest stablecoin pairing farm, VVS-USDT, yields for 115.66%.

For those who are risk adverse and are afraid of impermanent loss, VVS offers 8.37% APR for USDC-USDT pairing.

(Also Read: Farm On VVS Finance: The First Automated Money Maker DEX Built On The Cronos Blockchain)

Apart from these farms, VVS also offers single staking with low risk and high rewards. Staking VVS tokens and auto-compounding them currently has an APY of 72.31%.

MM Finance

The second highest TVL protocol is MM Finance with US$324.3 million locked. MM Finance is the first AMM and DEX on Cronos Chain that offers fee rebates via trading mining.

The highest APR here offers a whopping 596.47% and the highest stablecoin pairing farm, SINGLE-USDC, comes in at 398.29%. The USDC-USDT farm here has an APR of 10.74% which is better than VVS Finance.

You can also choose to single stake MMO and earn WCRO for a massive 1,200.59% APY with no impermanent loss.

Tectonic

Tectonic is the leading lending protocol and a cross-chain money market for earning passive yield and accessing instant backed loans with a TVL of US$292.93 million.

Supplying their native token, TONIC, offers the most favourable APY coming in at 8.34%. Although this is insignificant as compared to the previous two protocol, this is not subjected to any impermanent loss.

Closing thoughts

There are a variety of strategies and farms available in the Cronos ecosystem, not just limited to this list.

Sometimes, it can be profitable to borrow funds from one protocol and stake them in another protocol that offers a higher supply rate than your borrow rate.

The protocols mentioned have all been audited but this is by no means a guarantee of security as audited protocols have been hacked before.

Upon depositing your funds into any of these protocols, you are subjected to smart contract risks and can lose everything if a hacker prevails.

Always do your own research before investing in any protocols.

Featured Image Credit: CoinQuora / Chain Debrief

Also Read: Here’s The Full List Of Yield Farms On The Cronos (Crypto.com) Network