The Cronos blockchain is preparing to roll out its next major update, the “Smarturn” upgrade, on October 30, 2025. This v1.5 release introduces significant enhancements to the Cronos EVM mainnet, aiming to improve performance, cross-chain connectivity, and developer experience.
According to the team, the update will bring several technical advancements, including support for smart accounts, new Ethereum opcodes, upgraded client compatibility, and improved IBC interoperability. A detailed upgrade guide for node operators with target block height and final instructions is also expected soon.
The ecosystem, known for its compatibility with Ethereum and focus on decentralized applications, continues to evolve to meet the growing demand for faster, more flexible blockchain environments.
One of the key announcements of the Smarturn upgrade is the inclusion of EIP-7702, which implements “smart accounts.” With this aspect, Externally Owned Accounts (EOAs) can be used to act upon as smart contracts without the necessity of an independent wallet deployment.
By this, users can manage programmed wallet logics, group multiple transactions together, and set custom permissions and do them all within an individual account.
The upgrade aligns the Cronos EVM further with go-ethereum v1.15.11 to match Ethereum’s Cancun and Prague forks. They consist of three new opcodes, TSTORE, TLOAD, and MCOPY, which implement transient storage and fast memory operations. With these new oopses, developers can now save temporary data during transactions and save gas fees dramatically.
For example, the new MCOPY opcode lowers memory copy expenses from approximately 100 gas to only 27 and is particularly beneficial to DeFi and gaming contracts that execute multiple on-chain operations within each transaction. All these enhance network efficiency, developer efficiency, and app scalability.
The upgrade also improves mempool, allowing transaction replacement with higher gas fees, enabling users to “speed up” or “cancel” pending transactions. This feature is vital for wallets, trading bots, and DeFi protocols managing rapid market changes.
Additionally, Cronos is now IBC-go v10.1.1 compatible and uses the new IBC v2 standard. This upgrade reduces redundant handshakes and minimizes latency to make cross-chain interactions more streamlined and smooth to connect to Ethereum and other IBC-enabled chains.
The Cronos team is also collaborating with the Interchain Foundation to roll out Eureka, an IBC extension that will further enhance cross-chain data exchange prowess. Through these new releases, Cronos hopes to produce a faster, more intelligent, and interoperable blockchain infrastructure as it continues to mature within the overall Web3 industry.
Also Read: Cronos and AWS Partner to Power $10 Billion Tokenization Vision


