Latest news with #MirkoZhao
Business Insider
03-07-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
Cronos Delivers Sub-Second Block Time, Cementing Status Among Top 10 Fastest Chains
Cronos has announced the completion of a major performance upgrade to the Cronos EVM mainnet, delivering up to 10x reduction in block time and pushing the network into the sub-second era. This enhancement significantly improves network responsiveness and throughput, supporting the next generation of high-performance decentralized applications. As of 3 July 2025, the network upgrade will go live on mainnet, bringing Cronos EVM's average block interval from approximately 5.6 seconds down to under one second. This achievement reinforces its position as one of the most compatible, low-latency and scalable Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains. With its instant finality, Cronos now ranks among the world's 10 fastest blockchains for on-chain finality, opening the door to real-time DeFi, AI and payments. This leap in speed is enabled by recent scalability innovations, including BlockSTM, the parallel execution engine introduced in the Pallene upgrade, which allows multiple transactions to be processed simultaneously within each block. The latest block time optimization complements this by increasing block production frequency, resulting in faster finality and smoother user interactions. Combined, these upgrades are expected to: Increase overall transaction throughput (TPS) Enable near-instant responsiveness across DeFi, AI and payments Improve developer UX for high-frequency applications Reduce latency for real-time, on-chain interactions Mirko Zhao, Cronos Labs Lead and Head of Product & Engineering commented, 'By unlocking sub-second performance, we're not just making the network faster — we're enabling a new class of ultra-fast blockchain applications. This upgrade reinforces our long-term commitment to developer experience and performance at scale.' This upgrade follows Cronos' broader roadmap focused on performance, affordability and AI agent readiness. Prior to this upgrade, Cronos implemented a 10x base gas fee reduction in June, making the network more accessible to both users and developers. The network has also broken new ground in real-world adoption. In partnership with it became the first blockchain to support direct funding of a prepaid card with crypto. A supporting feature, Auto-Harvest, automates the process of converting DeFi rewards into fiat top-ups, bridging the gap between on-chain activity and everyday payments. About Cronos Cronos is a leading blockchain ecosystem that has partnered with and more than 500 application developers and contributors representing an addressable user base of more than a hundred million people around the world. Cronos' mission is to make it easy and safe for the next billion crypto users to adopt self-custody in Web3, with a focus on Decentralized Finance and Gaming. The Cronos universe encompasses 3 chains: Cronos EVM, the leading Ethereum-compatible blockchain built on the Cosmos SDK; Cronos POS, a leading Cosmos chain for payments and NFTs; and Cronos zkEVM, a new high performance layer 2 network secured by Ethereum. Cronos ranks among the top 15 blockchain ecosystems, encompassing more than 6 billion dollars of user assets. Since inception, it has securely settled more than 100 million transactions. Transaction fees are paid in Cronos ($CRO), a blue chip cryptocurrency. Cronos is supported by Cronos Labs, a Web3 start-up accelerator focused on DeFi, GameFi and the development of the Cronos ecosystem.
Business Insider
18-06-2025
- Business
- Business Insider
VVS Finance Launches Auto Harvest, Bringing DeFi Yield to Crypto.com Prepaid Cardholders
Leading Cronos DEX and yield farming platform VVS Finance have announced the launch of Auto Harvest for Prepaid Cardholders. The feature enables users to automatically harvest yield from DeFi farms to be used to fund their prepaid card for everyday spending. The feature is live as of today across all farms issuing VVS tokens that are labeled as Auto Harvest on the VVS Finance platform. For users selecting as their harvest destination, rewards (after fees) are converted to fiat via USDC or a local equivalent, and funded to their linked Prepaid Card, subject to regional availability. Esther Wong, Senior Vice President of Cards at said: 'The Prepaid Card is a vital bridge between the fiat and crypto worlds and a stepping stone to participating in decentralized finance. The launch of Auto Harvest reinforces this by allowing VVS Finance users to automatically claim their yield farming rewards and seamlessly use them to enable spending on everyday goods and services.' Mirko Zhao, Cronos Labs Lead said: 'VVS Finance's Auto Harvest feature shows that what happens on Cronos chain doesn't have to stay on Cronos chain. Its native integration with Prepaid Card gives Cronos users the freedom to claim their yield farming rewards and decide where to utilize them – for other DeFi purposes onchain, or to cash them out to their prepaid card.' Yotei, Product Lead at VVS Finance said: 'The launch of Auto Harvest seamlessly connects DeFi and CeFi, making it easy for VVS users to claim rewards and immediately allocate them for everyday spending. It's a breakthrough in making decentralized finance accessible to mainstream users, who can seamlessly claim their rewards and convert tokens with zero friction.' Auto Harvest rewards are automatically harvested daily once they have reached a minimum threshold of $6, though users retain the ability to manually claim from an Auto Harvest farm without any processing fee at any time. Its integration for Prepaid Cardholders makes it easier than ever for users to off-ramp crypto and spend it in the real world without the usual multi-step delays. The incorporation of Auto Harvest into Prepaid Card bridges DeFi with real-world usability. It also reduces the complexity of managing yield farming, making DeFi more accessible to users unfamiliar with onchain mechanics. VVS Finance is the leading DeFi protocol on Cronos with a broad base of active users and a focus on user-friendly financial tools. It forms the gateway to Cronos, empowering DeFi users to trade, stake, earn, and take control of their digital assets. With support for advanced order types and perpetual markets, VVS provides a diverse basket of services within a single platform. About Cronos Cronos is a leading blockchain ecosystem, adopted by more than 500 application developers and partners representing an addressable user base of more than 100 million people around the world. Cronos' mission is to make it easy and safe for the next billion crypto users to adopt self-custody in Web3, with a focus on Decentralized Finance and Gaming. The Cronos universe encompasses 3 chains: Cronos (EVM), the leading Ethereum-compatible blockchain built on Cosmos SDK; Cronos POS, a leading Cosmos chain for payments and NFTs; and Cronos zkEVM, a new high performance layer 2 network. Cronos ranks among the top 15 blockchain ecosystems, with more than 6 billion dollars of user assets stored on the network. Since launching in 2021, it has securely settled more than 100 million transactions. Cronos Labs is the $100M startup accelerator focused on Cronos. Contact Market Across
