Crypto.com has been spending millions on advertising and gaining market share in the last 12 + months, but how is it for users?

I decided to sign up for Crypto.com last year just before most of the recent advertising blitz. If you are into sports you may well have seen some of their activity, with Formula 1, UFC, Basketball and others, and Matt Damon fronting a big campaign.  It's risky business spending such a huge amount of money but gaining market share is important in the crypto world, especially during the bull market, to see you through the inevitable bear market that follows, and we are now experiencing.

The main reason I signed up was their crypto card, which became available in my country.  They offered a debit card with several different levels and perks.  You can spend either fiat or crypto (crypto is sold and converted to your currency - this may trigger a taxable event depending on your local laws), and it works like a debit card, in that you have to preload the card before spending.  The card is solid metal, feels heavy and honestly the coolest card I have used (and I have had literally hundreds of different credit/debit cards over the years), I really love it!

Perks include free* subscriptions to Spotify, Netflix, Amazon Prime, airport lounge access, better staking rates, different cashback rates on purchases (* free means you get the equivalent value in CRO credited to your account, you can sell for $ or save and use as a way to accumulate CRO).

The different levels determine your perks and card colour.  I only wanted to dip my toe in so I bought $500 worth of CRO, staked/locked for 6 months and applied for the Ruby Red card.  It was quite a long wait for the card itself, several months in fact, although I did get a 'virtual' card that I could use for online purchases before the actual card arrived, I don't know if that wait has come down now as I applied when it was first available in my country.

For the Ruby tier your 'staked' CRO doesn't earn anything, its just locked for 6 months, after 6 months you can unstake but you lose the card benefits, you can leave it staked but unlocked, or you can restake.  After my first 6 months CRO had risen in value so much I could unstake, and restake with a much smaller number of CRO for the $500 lock (nearly had enough to upgrade to Jade/Indigo without adding any more $ but not quite!), then send the remaining CRO to the defi wallet to stake for around 12% return.  Now my restaked amount has unlocked its dropping in value and only around $100 but I still get the perks as long as I don't unstake, and my original amount is still earning 12% in the defi wallet waiting for the next bull run, in fact I have added more CRO since the price dropped.

I top up my card via direct bank transfer (PayID here, I pay an email address in the CRO app through my banking app and it appears in my account a few minutes later, no fees), then transfer from fiat wallet to card for free.  There are fees for topping up with credit or debit cards.

If you read many of the online forums, reddit etc.. Crypto.com has been criticised quite a lot, as many of the perks have been reduced (above screenshots show current perks for Australian users AFTER the changes, they were even better before!), however with the recent collapse of several other crypto companies, people are maybe realising that ensuring a viable business model is essential and what Crypto.com were offering previously maybe wasn't sustainable long term.  A lot of those criticising bought CRO and locked for the card when the price was much higher and therefore their investment is worth a lot less now, but its important with this type of investment to look long term and decide if it's worth the risk.  For me my initial $500 investment is still worth more than $500, plus I have earned plenty of CRO with my Spotify cashback and general card usage, plus defi earnings, even with the current market conditions.

From an investment point of view, looking at Crypto.com vs Binance, if CRO (current price around $0.12 USD) had the market cap of BNB (current price around $240 USD) then it would be worth around $2, if you look at possible price with equivalent market cap at BNB all time high, its closer to $5.  Even just the potential return if CRO just returns to its own ATH is huge.

I haven't used the actual exchange much, as I think there are cheaper options in terms of fees and spread, so I mainly use for buying CRO, for the debit card, and for defi, but for lower value purchases the difference in fees/spread won't make as much difference and therefore it would be convenient to just use the one site/app.  They also offer 'missions' to collect 'diamonds' that you can trade for NFTs or mystery boxes (contain varying CRO rewards), you get one diamond just for checking in each day, which is a fun way to increase engagement.

Overall I'm very happy with Crypto.com, I love the card and I'm bullish on CRO long term, I prefer decentralised investments and coins/tokens, but I also like making money and I think CRO has huge potential.

If you are considering signing up to Crypto.com, please consider using my referral link https://crypto.com/app/sgsfedk767 and if you stake for a Ruby tier card or above we both get $25 USD worth of CRO :)

Disclaimers & Copyright:

Any links in my posts are referral where possible so if you sign up and use the site via those links I get something,  or we both get something out of it, if there is no referral link available it’s just a straight link to the site.  I really appreciate anyone using referral links as it supports covering my time writing these articles.   None of my opinions or recommendations are based on whether a referral link is available and I have received no other incentive to write any of these articles, they are a true representative of my own experiences, good and bad.

This is not financial advice and I am not a financial advisor.  Do your own research before making any investments.