Crypto.com review 2020

Crypto.com (CDC or Crypto Dot Com) offers a lot of services that have something to do with cryptocurrency. You can trade cryptocurrency on their spot exchange, they have their own crypto debit card in collaboration with VISA, you can earn money by staking and you can apply for a (crypto) loan. In this Crypto.com review we will talk about the popular services that this company offers.

On this page you also have the opportunity to leave your own experiences via our review form.

The history of Crypto.com

The Crypto.com domain was registered in 1993 and was owned by Matt Blaze. He was a cryptographer at that time and he played a big role for AT&T. His main job was to use cryptography as a security for multiple computer systems. Matt never expected that crypto also would get a monetary role in the future. At the moment he is a scientist with the Georgetown University and a member of the board of directors of the Tor Project.

In 2018 Monaco Coin bought the domain which was registered by Matt Blaze. The company used a smart marketing campaign to brand Crypto.com. Their mission is to play a big role in the transition to cryptocurrency and the adoption. Crypto.com uses the infrastructure of the parent company and they try to fulfill the wish of the consumer to pay safely and easily with cryptocurrency. They do this by collaborating with VISA. They do not offer a credit card, but a debit card.

By the end of 2019 the company launched their own exchange to acquire a bigger market share.

In 2020 the company launched a separate wallet app, where the user also gets access to their own private keys.

October, 2020, Crypto.com lowered the staking interest rates from 18% to 12%.

October, 2020, Crypto.com multiplied the minimum staking requirements for crypto debit cards by 2.5x.

November, 2020, Crypto.com lowered the app referral commission from 50 USD to 25 USD.

Update 2020: Crypto.com swaps MCO to CRO

The Crypto.com platform used two different tokens for the platform, Crypto.com Coin (CRO) and MCO (MCO). In August of 2020 Crypto.com decided to phase out the MCO token completely and swap the MCO token to CRO. This can easily be done using the wizard in the app. You have until November 2nd 2020 to execute the swap, if you do this before September 2nd 2020 you will receive a 20% bonus. The swap has a fixed number and is therefore not subject to exchange rate fluctuations.

This also means that from now on, you will have to borrow, lend and use your CRO in order to qualify for the debit cards. We edited our Crypto.com review according to this new information.

What is Crypto.com?

A versatile platform where you can do your payment, but instead of with euro or dollar, with cryptocurrency. The choice to collaborate with VISA was deliberately made, so their clients can pay everywhere and have the same rights and bonuses as a conventional cardholder. The product is delivered in a similar way as the modern Fintech solutions. With the help of an app you can do more than just invest in crypto:

Earn a yearly interest up to 10%.

Earn CRO with the cashback program (get a 100% cashback on your Netflix, Spotify or Prime subscription, 5% cashback on all purchases and 10% cashback with AirBNB and Expedia).

Invest in cryptocurrency (spot trading).

Perform payments in shops that accepts VISA.

Cryptocurrency staking.

Moreover, it is a modern way to manage your money. Crypto.com facilitates the possibility to work with existing cryptocurrencies, but the company also has its own cryptocurrency. Besides cryptocurrency, you can also work with regular dollar or euro. The goal is to make paying as easy as possible and to improve the crypto adoption.

Why choose Crypto.com?

Buy, sell and pay with cryptocurrency via the app.

Advanced spot exchange for professional traders.

Crypto debit cards, with which you can receive 1% to 5% cashback and other cashbacks.

Cryptocurrency staking with up to 6% return via the app and up to 10% via the exchange (these are 2 different platforms).

Credit applications for companies.

Automated quant trading.

Wallets under your control, where you manage your own private keys.

Continue to read the Crypto.com review to learn more about the platform.

How do you create an Crypto.com account?

Crypto.com has a web-based exchange and an app, these two platforms seem to be separate in terms of registration procedures. Once you have registered with both platforms, you can link them together.

Click here to register an account at the exchange (50 USD bonus).

Click here to register an account via the app (50 USD bonus).

You can easily create an account via the app. Fill in your data and you will get a request to verify your identity (this is mandatory). The process includes giving your full legal name, ID and to verify the ID a selfie:

+ Visit the website (use this link and receive $50 of CRO-tokens for free).

+ Enter in your real data.

+ You will receive an email that you can open with your smartphone and leads you to the app.

+ Install the app and login.

+ Verify your account, this is an automated process. You can’t use the app without verification.

The verification process on itself is very simple, but make sure that you send a clear picture with a correct lighting. After this you usually have to wait for some hours, up to a day, before the process is completed. When the process is done, you will receive a confirmation email that you are accepted. From then on you will have access to the app.

How does Crypto.com work?

You already created an account via the app and you have access to the platform, now you are probably curious about how everything works. You can only use the CDC features when you deposit credit, this can be crypto or fiat. Below you will find how the app works, later we also discuss how the desktop exchange works.

Deposit currency

You can deposit cryptocurrency or fiat by clicking “Transfer” on the homepage in the app. So, it depends on what you prefer and if you’re already holding some crypto.

You can easily transfer and deposit crypto to your Crypto.com wallet. One tip that we can give you, is to be careful and always triple check the wallet address and the selected coin. It is painful when your crypto is sent to the wrong address or the wrong wallet. This will result in a loss of your crypto, you’re your own bank, remember?

If you do not own crypto yet or prefer to pay with euro, dollar or pounds than that is also possible. You can top up your account using a bank transfer. Take into account that this can take up to 5 workdays.

Trading crypto via the app

Buying crypto is just as easy as depositing money on your account. Click the “Buy” button to start. You will get three options to buy crypto in the app. You can use the amount that is available in your crypto wallet, you can complete the payment with a credit card or bank account or use the amount that is available in your fiat wallet.

The use of your credit card has a 3.5% handling fee per purchase. These fees are for the card issuer and not for Crypto.com. A traditional bank transfer is free, this is only not ideal if you want to buy crypto in the heat of the moment.

Finally, it is important to choose the desired method and select the desired cryptocurrency. Press the button to buy and you are done. Selling cryptocurrency can be done by simply clicking the “Sell” button.

Earn money with crypto staking

Besides you can invest in crypto, you can choose to let Crypto.com do the hard work by lending your cryptocurrency. Using the platform you can stake dozens of coins, but the native CRO crypto of  the platform will give you the most return.

The staking return varies from 2% till 10%, but to qualify for the highest return you have to stake at least 10.000 CRO. Via the newCrypto.com exchange platform you can now receive a 10% return on an annual basis with “only” 5,000 CRO.

Just like BlockFi and other lending platforms, Crypto.com offers the opportunity to let your money work for you. You can earn on average 2% -10% per year on your capital. This return depends on the amount of coins you have staked and for how long. The interest of the staked crypto will be credited every seven days to your online wallet. It will be paid in the same currency as the initial deposit.

Up until here it is quite traditional, since crypto.com works with a peer-to-peer lending system. When we think about this, then you could say that you help someone else with your money. In short, while you are lending crypto, someone else is borrowing your crypto. You are some kind of mini bank. The Crypto.com Earn Program works as some kind of CFD, they earn money with the difference between the expense for the platform and the earnings from the credit services.

You can choose your own risk profile, from Low to High. These are the options you can choose:

FLEX

This is the most flexible option, which offers you a low risk, so you can try the service. You can compare it with a flexible deposit from your bank. Stake your coins and earn money, and withdraw at any desired moment, flexible and penalty free. In return for the low risk, you will also get a low interest rate.

1 MONTH

Use the power of compound interest to you advantage. You can raise the yearly interest by choosing the 1 month option. The plan of 1 month includes temporarily locking of the CRO-coins, which means the bank has less risks and this will generate more interest than the flexible option.

3 MONTHS

With this option you can earn the maximum interest that you can earn with the Crypto.com app. Although your crypto is stuck for a period of 3 months, you will earn the maximum reward.

Crypto.com Desktop exchange

Crypto.com also has a separate desktop exchange environment since 2020. To use this you have to register a separately account and you can take advantage of various advantages. If you already have a verified app account, you do not have to re-verify and you can easily link your data via the app. The advantages of the desktop exchange are:

10% annual CRO interest instead of 6%.

Lower minimum CRO treshhold to receive a 10% interest (5,000 CRO).

The more CRO you stake, the more discount you will get on the trading fees.

Staking bonus of 50 USD (minimum 5,000 CRO).

How to stake CRO on Crypto.com?

There are two ways to stake crypto via Crypto.com. You can use the app or use the separate exchange platform.

Stake crypto via the app (up to 6% interest):

Open the app

Enter your pin code

Make sure that you have the minimum amount of crypto available in your wallet (this minimum is different per crypto)

Click in the app on the Crypto.com logo (at the bottom in the middle)

Click on Earn

Click on the plus-sign

Click on the cryptocurrency that you want to stake

Choose for how long you want to stake it (the longer, the higher your return, but also the higher your risk)

Read the terms and conditions thoroughly and decide for yourself if you’re ok with it

Choose how much you want to stake and confirm this

Your interest will be paid every seven days. When you invest 10,000 CRO or more you will qualify for a higher interest. 10,000 CRO has a value of 1650 USD / 1400 euro in 2020. This is quite a big investment in our opinion.

Stake crypto via the exchange (up to 10% interest):

Via the new Crypto.com exchange you can now receive 4% extra interest and the minimum deposit is a lot lower (5,000 CRO):

Register an account with the Crypto.com exchange.

Link the exchange to the app (if you already have an app account) or perform the KYC.

Send your CRO from the app to the exchange or deposit fiat or crypto to purchase CRO.

Go to Stake & Earn.

Click on Stake CRO to receive full benefits.

Select the desired tier or enter a custom amount.

Click Review.

Confirm your choice.

When you stake CRO through the exchange, you will not only receive 10% annual interest, but also a discount on your trading fees.

Quant Trading

Like the most serious current crypto investment apps, Crypto.com offers investors the opportunity to use automated quantitative trading (or better known as robotic trading) to earn money. The trading bot uses a machine-driven trading strategy, and runs automatically in the cloud without human intervention.

By using the leverage effect and margin trading, it can increase your profits. But you can also lose a lot of money.

Quantitative trading is a piece of coded software that uses complex mathematical models to determine when cryptocurrency has to be bought or sold. By analysing historical developments and react on synchronous market signals. Because the whole subject is very complex, we advise you to do a lot of research on this subject. To keep this Crypto.com review simple, we chose to not go deeper into this material.

In short, you can choose to open a savings deposit, but you can also choose to generate more money with your crypto.

Crypto.com Debit Card

Another popular service from Crypto.com are the debit cards in collaboration with VISA. The cards are delivered free of charge based on the number of CRO that you staked for 6 months. Yes, you will also receive interest on this investment. The debit cards have several advantages, see the image below.

Please note that all cashbacks are credited in CRO and not euros or dollars.

How long does it take until I receive the debit card?

We have also ordered a debit card ourselves to try it out for our visitors.

Applied on: September 24, 2020

Issued: September 25, 2020

We haven’t received the card (it’s not yet shipped). Update November 2020; still nothing.

We will update this Crypto.com review when we receive the card.

What are the risks of Crypto.com?

Just like most of the crypto platforms, Crypto.com also makes sure that their security is updated frequently. They use both cold wallets (offline) and hot (online) storage. 100% of the cryptocurrencies from users is stored offline in cold storage. Which means that in theory you cannot reach your wallet without an internet connection. Crypto.com goes one step further when it comes to security, by a strategic partnership with Ledger, a world leader in blockchain solutions. Ledger integrates its multi-signature technology, the Ledger Vault, to the Crypto.com platform. All users can profit from the state of the art Ledger security.

Moreover, Crypto.com has an insurance for cold storage to protect against direct loss or theft. This coverage provides a financial buffer of maximal $100 million in worst case scenario, in short, your currencies are covered. Keep in mind that this only applies when Crypto.com is hacked. When someone has access to your account, because your own security is weak, then you lose all your funds.

Although cold storage offers extra security measures, there are still wallets necessary to ease the accessibility, so clients can withdraw their coins without delay. Also the stored fiat currencies are save. Crypto.com protects the fiat currency of its users by storing these funds in secure and regulated bank accounts, which offers multiple advantages when it comes to security.

When you are for example an American citizen, your USD funds are covered for a maximum of $250.000 because of FDIC insurance cover. Moreover, the user keeps ownership of the fiat funds that are stored on that bank account.

Crypto.com fees

Globally speaking you are rewarded for the amount of coins you are going to stake. You will receive perks according to which level you are in. This can be different for everyone, you can learn more about that on their official website.

We specified the Crypto.com fees for the investing section only in this Crypto.com review. There are more (specific additional costs and fees for using the debit card, for example.

No position entry or exit charges will be charged when trading with Crypto Invest. However, they do charge a daily fee over all the profits. At this moment it is free to use Invest, but this can change in the future.

You pay a fee of 9% over your profits when you stake 10,000 CRO or more, when you stake less then you pay a fee of 18%.

They deduct a success fee on your profits, without touching your initial deposit. When you, for example, started with $100 and you earned $5 on that same day, $0.90 will we deducted, which is 18%.

For users with 10,000 or more locked in CRO staking, Crypto.com deducts an initial fee of 9%. Fees are claimed every 24 hours at 00:00 UTC, or when you withdraw (a part of) your money.

Is Crypto.com safe to use?

Looking at the security protocols, we could state that Crypto.com is a safe platform. You can look at the partnership between Crypto.com and Ledger and VISA as a sign of their commitment to offer their users a world class service.

YouTube is another excellent source that shows the legitimacy of Crypto.com. There are many videos of users who are actively buying with their CRO VISA card that show that Crypto.com seems to do what they promised to do. The whole team is published with first- and last name on their website. You can exactly see who is behind the company. They continuously building the platform and deliver new features.

When it comes to development you could state that the company is almost just as developed as Binance, but with a smaller team. Adapting rapidly to the demand of the market.