The completion of this major performance upgrade to the EVM mainnet delivered up to 10x reduction in block times, pushing the network into the sub-1-second range.
This revamp aligns with Cronos’ overall roadmap, which prioritizes effectiveness, affordability, and AI agent readiness. The last boost in productivity was just last month, when there was a 10x reduction in gas fees, making the network more accessible for users and developers alike.
Climbing The Finality Leaderboard
According to a press release shared with CryptoPotato, the update is scheduled to go live on the mainnet today, reducing the average Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) block interval from over 5.5 seconds to under one second.
This achievement solidifies its position as one of the most compatible and low-latency EVM chains. With this finality time, Cronos ranks in the top 10 fastest blockchains for on-chain finality, bringing it on par with competitors such as Aptos, SEI, SUI, Solana, and others.
This jump in speed is also aided by recent scalability modifications, including BlockTSM, the parallel execution engine, which was introduced in the Pallene upgrade released in December last year. It enabled multiple transactions to be processed simultaneously within each block.
Both of these upgrades combined are expected to:
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.”
The Cronos ecosystem comprises three chains: Cronos EVM, an Ethereum-compatible blockchain built on the Cosmos SDK; Cronos POS, a chain dedicated to payments and NFTs; and the Cronos zkEVM, a high-performance Layer 2 (L2) network secured by Ethereum.
Its native cryptocurrency, CRO, is currently ranked among the top 50 by market capitalization, according to the latest data from CoinGecko, with a total capitalization of over $2.5 billion.
