Crypto.com Backed Cronos Appoints Ryan Wyatt as CEO in Revenue Push

Cronos, Crypto.com-backed blockchain ecosystem the company backs, has spent recent years building out EVM-compatible infrastructure, DeFi primitives and an NFT marketplace to capture users from the exchange and app. But the blockchain project still faces pressure to show durable business models rather than just user metrics.

In order to fix that, it has announced a decisive leadership change to strengthen its position in the increasingly competitive layer-1 market.

On Monday, Cronos Labs confirmed the appointment of Ryan Wyatt as CEO, tasking him with steering the network toward a more revenue-generating, product-driven model.

The move, as per the official blog annoucement, frames Wyatt’s hire as the start of a push to turn Cronos into a vertically integrated platform that can generate sustainable demand for CRO and other on-chain services.

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Who is Cronos’ New CEO, Ryan Wyatt

Ryan Wyatt is the newly appointed CEO of Cronos Labs. Interestinly, Cronos Labs did not previously have a standalone CEO. The organization was led by Ken Timsit, who served as Managing Director of Cronos Labs and was the most senior executive overseeing strategy and ecosystem development.

Ryan Wyatt’s appointment marks the first time Cronos Labs has named a dedicated CEO, underscoring the strategic shift toward execution and revenue.

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Wyatt is a well-known executive in gaming and web3 circles who previously held senior roles at YouTube and Polygon. Wyatt previously led YouTube Gaming as Global Head of Gaming, switching later to Polygon as President. At Polygon, he focused on partnerships, growth, and ecosystem expansion.

What’s Next for Cronos

As CEO, Wyatt said in a note mentions that he “plans to move Cronos away from a generic layer-1 model.” He wants to focus on building revenue-generating products. The strategy centers on first-party applications built directly on Cronos. These products are expected to drive on-chain activity and contribute to CRO buy-and-burn mechanisms.

Wyatt also aims to leverage Crypto.com’s distribution and liquidity to create simple on-ramps into DeFi. The goal is to turn Cronos into a product-led, vertically integrated ecosystem with measurable revenue and sustained fee flows.

The goal was also reaffirmed by Kris, crypto.com CEO who said, “The strategy is simple: launch a high revenue generating app and use the revenue to consistently buy back $CRO”.

Can Ryan “Cook it” For $CRO?

The strategic reset comes at a time when Cronos’ on-chain metrics point to a clear need for stronger monetization. Despite maintaining roughly $370 million in TVL, recent data shows relatively low daily app fees and revenue,

As per the data from DeFillama, current daily app fees stand $33K and app revenue at $5.9K). These translate into very low annualized yields relative to TVL, indicating poor value capture. Further, the extremely high stablecoin dominance – 99% USDC – suggests that most capital is parked rather than actively used in DeFi protocols like DEXs, lending, or perps.

The declining trend in TVL and activity over recent weeks further signals weakening momentum, and the low token price reflects this lack of engagement. Thus, the new CEO, Ryan Wyatt, faces an uphill task as he takes charge of Cronos Labs.

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