Crypto.com 2021 Review — Investing for Beginners
What you should know on the upcoming Cryptocurrency and exchange platform. Would it replace our credit cards and bank accounts?
Jingles just signed up for an account with Crypto.com and today we’d like to share more about our realisation on what exactly is Crypto.com.
We have started dipping our toes into Cryptocurrency in 2016/2017 but are still quite unfamiliar about it and because it is still a developing sector we still trying to understand what Crypto aims to achieve. To many, it is a speculative industry that it’s too risky and dangerous especially when it’s not regulated by the government.
There is simply no ‘real world’ use cases because so much of it is more obvious to a developer or whoever is working in that space.
We tried various cryptocurrency platforms such as Huobi, Bittrex, Binance, Coinhako, Coinbase and BlockFi. Each of them has its own strength in use cases like Binance being the best exchange for trading but complicated for newbies, Best Interest like BlockFi, Overall Coinbase UX is pretty good. But all of them have a common theme for us. Is that they all live on the web and other than seeing the numbers grow, we can’t use it unless we withdraw it into our bank account to spend it.
Other than trading and earning more interest, there is no way for us to have utility in the real world. We feel that a lot of Crypto applications are still in the beginning stage of adoption and it was interesting for us when we chanced upon Crypto.com and thought that it could be the platform that allows more use cases in our day to day life. We were super attracted to the 100% cashback for Spotify and Netflix for Crypto.com credit card.
If you are lazy to read, you can watch our youtube video on our thoughts on Crypto.com
What is Crypto.com?
Crypto.com is a cryptocurrency and payment platform.
Their main aim is to promote the widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies. Founded in 2016, Crypto.com already has over 3 million users.
Basically, they are looking to replace a lot of functions of what a bank does.
They have an App that facilitates simpler financial transactions (like buying and selling crypto) and an Exchange which is the more complex portion of trading crypto (with futures and whatnots). Today, we are just going to share about the simpler portion which is the Crypto.com App
What can you do with Crypto.com App?
1. Buy Sell Crypto — i.e. Your money changer
There are generally two ways you could fund your account from Fiat money.
Either with a credit card or with fiat currency that is money that is issued by government — i.e. US dollars, Aussie Dollars or Singapore Dollars
We prefer transferring fiat currency to fund our account because there are no credit card fees involved. For Singaporeans, you can use Xfers to fund your account without any transfer fees. There would be a 0.4% fees when you withdraw your crypto into fiat.
Another limit to Singapore dollars is that there are limited types of cryptos that you can purchase compared to the other bigger currencies like USD and Euro (for now Xfers supported cryptocurrencies include: BTC, ETH, BCH, LTC, XRP, CRO, BNB, XSGD).
For example, you can’t get ADA with Singapore dollars and you can use Euro to get ADA. So another way around this is to exchange Singapore dollars to CRO which is Crypto.com Coin and then to ADA.
2. Crypto Earn — i.e. replacing my OCBC, UOB, DBS bank account
Next, Crypto.com also has a function that is very similar to a savings account called Crypto Earn. You can choose if you want a fixed deposit for a duration or a non-fixed deposit with your fiat.
Depending on the type and amount of cryptocurrency coins you stake the range of interest you can earn is from 3% — 12%PA. We currently tried staking ETH and MATIC, giving us 5.5% and 10%.
This is higher than what our current bank savings account provides and also you would be taking on more risk.
Crypto earn is riskier as while you can earn more interest, you are taking the risk on the crypto coin itself as the crypto coin value fluctuates and prices can be volatile.
3. Crypto.com Visa Card — i.e. Replacing my credit cards and using Crypto.com Visa card for my day to day expenses
What is most exciting for us is that Crypto.com debit card offers cashback perks that can rival our local bank credit card.
Depending on which card tier, you can get Spotify or Netflix for free every month!
We immediately applied for the ruby steel card because we want free Spotify but don’t want to stake US$4,000. But then, realised we can’t just get a Ruby steel card even though we have staked US$400 for Ruby card. This is confusing for us because their website doesn’t explain much about the fees. We assumed that the cards are free as long as we stake the amount required for each tier.
We contacted Crypto.com support (who responded quickly) and they said that the Midnight blue card is free. And for any other card tiers, we would need to pay $50 for the card whenever we upgrade.
We thought that any first card is free, but it’s not the case. So do take note!
The reason why we need to pay $50 for the cards is that the upgraded card is made of metal, which is more costly to make….so it looks like we aren’t able to get free Spotify after all..☹️
For Singapore users, there are ongoing promotions where you can get up to 12% cashback at select merchants.
4. Crypto.com Pay — i.e. replacing Google pay
Next, there’s Crypto.com Pay where it’s like Google pay. You can pay supported merchants, businesses and friends.
And now since they are hoping for more people to adopt it, they are offering great cashback like 10% if you transfer to your friends, and like 2.5–5% depending on the merchant.
There are also gift cards or vouchers you can purchase to use.
Our Final Thoughts about Crypto.com September 2021
Crypto.com is an interesting platform and if we’re not wrong, the first crypto defi platform that allows Singaporeans to get a debit card. Most of the other platforms like Blockfi and Binance have not rolled out the credit card function in Singapore yet.
So long as the returns and cashback are more attractive in comparison to our local bank’s credit card, we might consider t change our credit card to use Crypto.com debit card for some of our spendings.
The only risk and frustration we faced are:
- The credit card takes too long to come, and we need to pay $50 for a higher tier card. So we will probably have to calculate to see if it make sense.
- While Crypto.com is registered under the Digital Payment Tokens (DPT) license to provide their services in Singapore by MAS but they are not considered legal tender or securities.
The money inside is not protected by the Singapore government or SDIC like how our banks and securities are protected.
This means that you will not be able to recover money if the companies fail or something happens with your crypto in the exchange.
This is true for all crypto exchanges and platforms in Singapore.
While crypto companies are not regulated by the government, Crypto.com has taken active steps to secure their platforms such as insuring a total of USD 360M in cold storage insurance against physical damage or destruction, and third-party theft.
In case something like the polynetwork hack happens. - Lastly, the most crucial key risk is the volatility of cryptocurrency. So you’ll need to be comfortable with the daily 10–20% up and downs.
We are still experimenting with the functions such as Crypto.com Earn and this function called Supercharger. We also can’t wait to try out the Crypto.com credit card and would love to share our realisation on Crypto.com staking earnings and fees once we have some time to explore.
Let us know your thoughts?
