What Is Cronos [CRO]?

Cronos (CRO) is the native cryptocurrency token of Cronos Chain — a decentralized, open-source blockchain developed by the Crypto.com payment, trading and financial services company. Cronos Chain is one of the products in Crypto.com’s lineup of solutions designed to accelerate the global adoption of cryptocurrencies as a means of increasing personal control over money, safeguarding user data and protecting users’ identities. The CRO blockchain serves primarily as a vehicle that powers the Crypto.com Pay mobile payments app. In the future, Crypto.com plans to expand the reach of the CRO platform to power its other products as well. CRO went live in November-December 2018.

Who Are the Founders of Cronos?

Cronos was launched by the Crypto.com company as part of its vision of “putting cryptocurrency in every wallet.” Crypto.com itself was founded in June 2016 as “Monaco Technologies GmbH” by Kris Marszalek, Rafael Melo, Gary Or and Bobby Bao. Kris Marszalek, an alum of the Polish Adam Mickiewicz University, has founded and headed three companies prior to starting Crypto.com: consumer electronics design and manufacturing business Starline Polska, location-based service mobile app and platform YIYI and the e-commerce firm BEECRAZY. Rafael Melo earned his bachelor’s degree in engineering from the PUC-Rio. Over his more than 15-year-long career in finance, Melo has worked with major companies in Asia and helped secure over 50 million AUD in funding for the Ensogo social commerce website. Gary Or is a software engineer with over nine years of fullstack engineering experience. Prior to co-founding Crypto.com, Or worked as platform architect at Ensogo and co-founded the mobile app development firm Foris. He received his bachelor’s degree in engineering, computer science from the University of Hong Kong. Before helping launch Crypto.com, Bobby Bao worked in the M&A department of the China Renaissance investment bank. Bao has studied at the University of Melbourne, NYU Stern School of Business and the College of William & Mary.