Everything you want to know about supplying assets, borrowing, earning rewards, and staying safe on the Tectonic Finance platform. Can't find what you need? Visit our home page or check the company page for more background.
Tectonic Finance is a decentralized money market running on the Cronos blockchain. Unlike a bank, there is no credit check, no account approval process, and no single company holding your funds. Liquidity is pooled from all participants, and smart contracts handle every transaction automatically. Rates move up or down based on how much of each pool is currently borrowed — so when demand for USDT borrowing spikes, the interest rate rises to attract more suppliers. That's it. No manual intervention needed.
The Main Pool currently supports USDT, USDC.e, WBTC, WETH, CRO, TONIC, LCRO, ATOM, ADA, XRP, LTC, VVS, CDCBTC, CDCETH, and USC. Additional pools — Veno Pool and DeFi Pool — cover further assets. The list changes through governance votes, so checking the markets page directly gives you the most current picture. New assets are added when the community considers liquidity and oracle reliability sufficient.
First, you deposit collateral. Once supplied, a portion of its value becomes available as borrowing capacity — this is the collateral factor, typically 60–75% depending on the asset. You can then borrow a different asset up to that limit. Interest accrues per block. If the value of your collateral drops or your debt grows enough that your health factor falls below 1, liquidators can repay part of your loan and claim a portion of your collateral at a discount. Staying well below your borrowing limit is the safest approach.
TONIC is the native governance token of the Tectonic Finance protocol. Beyond voting on proposals, it is distributed as an additional incentive on top of regular interest. When you supply or borrow eligible assets, you earn TONIC rewards that compound with the base rate. The "Net Supply APY" and "Net Borrow APY" numbers you see in the markets table already factor in these token rewards. Negative borrow APYs — yes, you can get paid to borrow — happen when TONIC rewards exceed the interest cost.
xTONIC is the staked version of TONIC. When you lock xTONIC in a vault, your supply and borrow rewards receive a boost multiplier — the longer the lock period, the higher the multiplier. This means the same deposited amount generates more yield than it would without locking. Think of it as a commitment mechanic: the protocol rewards long-term participants more than those who dip in and out. Short-term users still earn, but they leave some APY on the table.
The Tectonic Finance smart contracts have undergone independent security audits. That said, no protocol can guarantee zero risk. Smart contract bugs, oracle failures, and extreme market volatility are real possibilities in any DeFi environment. The Tectonic Finance team publishes audit reports and maintains a public bug bounty program. You should only deposit funds you can afford to have at risk, and you should review the official documentation before committing large positions. Diversifying across protocols is also a reasonable strategy.
Rates are algorithmic and update every block. Each market has a utilization curve: at low utilization, rates are low to attract borrowers; as utilization climbs toward 100%, rates rise sharply to discourage additional borrowing and incentivize suppliers to add liquidity. There is typically a "kink" in the curve — a utilization threshold (often around 80%) above which the rate increase accelerates significantly. The borrow APY you see in the table is annualized from the per-block rate at the current utilization level.
Yes. CRO is an accepted collateral asset in the Main Pool with its own collateral factor. Deposit your CRO, enable it as collateral in your dashboard, and then borrow USDT up to the permitted limit. The main thing to watch is CRO's price — if it drops sharply and you're close to your borrow limit, your position could be flagged for liquidation. Many users keep their loan-to-value ratio below 50% of the maximum to give themselves room during volatile periods.
When a borrower's health factor drops below 1 — meaning their debt value relative to their collateral value has become too high — the position is eligible for liquidation. Any address can call the liquidation function. The liquidator repays up to 50% of the outstanding debt and receives the equivalent collateral value plus a liquidation incentive (a few percent bonus, typically around 8–10%). This keeps the protocol solvent. You can monitor your own health factor at any time in the Dashboard tab.
Honestly, it depends on what you're optimizing for. Tectonic Finance's protocol is built natively on Cronos, which means gas costs are a fraction of what you'd pay on Ethereum mainnet for similar operations. Transaction finality is fast. The asset selection includes Cronos-native tokens alongside major bridged assets like WBTC and WETH. On top of that, the TONIC rewards can push effective yields considerably above what you'd see on comparable protocols. If you hold CRO or other Cronos assets, this is a natural place to put them to work.
The Tectonic Finance interface supports MetaMask and other EVM-compatible wallets. Click the wallet button in the top navigation, select your wallet provider, and approve the connection. You'll also need to make sure your wallet is configured for the Cronos network (Chain ID 25). If you haven't added Cronos to MetaMask before, the site typically offers to add it automatically. Once connected, your balances and open positions appear immediately in the Dashboard.
No lock-up for basic supply positions. When you deposit assets, you receive tTokens (like tUSDT or tCRO) representing your share of the pool plus accrued interest. Redeem those tTokens at any time to withdraw. The catch: if utilization is very high and almost all liquidity is borrowed, available liquidity in the pool may be temporarily low. In practice this is rare, but it's worth knowing. The protocol doesn't lock your funds — market conditions determine immediate availability.
Yes. TONIC holders can propose and vote on protocol changes — things like adding new assets, adjusting collateral factors, modifying interest rate parameters, or allocating treasury funds. Staking TONIC for xTONIC generally gives holders more voting weight. Proposals are discussed on the community forum before going to an on-chain vote. If you hold enough TONIC, you can submit your own proposal. For more on the team and protocol direction, see the company page.
Tectonic Finance organizes markets into separate pools to contain risk. The Main Pool holds the largest, most liquid assets — USDT, USDC.e, CRO, WBTC, WETH, TONIC, and others — and carries the highest total value locked. The Veno Pool focuses on liquid staking derivatives, primarily tokens issued by the Veno Finance protocol. The DeFi Pool covers additional yield-bearing or partner tokens. Assets in one pool cannot be used as collateral to borrow from another pool. This isolation means a problem in a smaller pool doesn't automatically threaten the Main Pool's liquidity.