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Crypto.com
CRO Staking Rate Update
Once again, CRYPTO.COM (CDC) made massive changes to the ecosystem without any warning to its community. Out of the blue, CDC dropped CRO (Crypto.com Token) earning and staking percentages.
We’ve recently introduced two new ways to get yield with CRO: DeFi Swap and Supercharger, delivering 50%+ yield and 25%+ yield respectively, in addition to the 100%+ yield available on The Syndicate. As of today, CRO yield rates for Flexible Staking, 1 and 3 month terms (on Earn), Exchange Soft Staking, and 6 month staking (on Crypto.com Card & The Exchange) are updated as follows:
Exchange soft staking: 1%
Earn Flexible term: 1%
Earn 1 month term: 2%
Earn 3 month term: 4%
Card & Exchange 6 month stake: 6%
This is a huge drop in APR (Annual Percentage Rate). I have listed the old rates for comparison.
Flexible Term: 14% -> 1%
1 Month Term: 16% -> 2%
3 Month Term: 18% -> 4%
Card Staking: 18% -> 6%
After receiving backlash from the CDC community, the rates were quickly updated to slightly improved percentages as seen below.
New Card Staking Tiers
With the recent drop in CRO price due to the changes above, the card tiers became more accessible for many users. CDC will increase the card tier requirements on November 2nd, 2020 so take advantage if you are able.
IMPORTANT:
Cardholders who maintain their current CRO Card Stake will continue to enjoy the benefits associated with their card, but:
The new staking requirements will apply should the cardholder (1) upgrade their card tier or (2) unstake and restake their CRO Card Stake after 2 November 2020 07:00:00 UTC.
Card upgrade fees are waived for all cardholders globally from 23 October 2020 to 2 November 2020 07:00:00 UTC.
As you can see, the new card staking requirements will be more than double of what it is currently. To put that into perspective, I would need 25000 USD to get my current Icy White Card compared to 10000 USD—a 15000 USD price difference.
Other Updates
The recent Ask Me Anything (AMA) with CDC’s CEO, Kris Marszalek, demonstrates how well the platform is doing despite the recent changes as it surpasses 5 million users. The user base increased 5 folds in just 12 months and Marszalek has a target goal of 15 million users by the end of 2021.
Aside from user growth, CDC continues to integrate more coins for recurring buys to help users dollar cost average (DCA) into their favorites. As I have mentioned in my previous reports, it is a great feature but the minimum costs and other requirements make it too restrictive for many. Several other platforms provide a cheaper alternative to DCA into crypto such as BlockFi.
Cryptocurrencies that can be purchased via Recurring Buy:
BTC, CRO, ETH, LINK, BAND, VET, ADA & XRP
Options: Weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly
Payment methods: Credit Card, Stablecoin (USDT, USDM, TUSD, DAI, PAX, USDC), Fiat Wallet (USD, EUR, GBP & AUD)
Minimum amount: $50 USD
Maximum no. of recurring buys per month: 5
Another feature that many platforms is adding is PayID integration which will help simplify crypto addresses. Instead of convoluted crypto addresses of random numbers and letters, users can have a simple address such as “yourname$payid.crypto.com” which would work for all supported token transfers.
Once registered, users can send crypto from other compatible wallets to the Crypto.com App with just their PayID, instead of a full-length crypto address. At launch, supported cryptocurrencies include CRO, ETH, BTC, XRP and many more ERC20 tokens. Users can also send crypto to other compatible wallets using PayID hosted by other members in the Open Payments Coalition.
I think PayID is a wonderful feature that will help with adoption as it makes transacting in crypto much more user friendly.
Interest Earned
In my last CDC report, my account was down 7% in earnings due to the market correction—my first ever “loss” with HODLing on an interest-earning platform. I put quotations around “loss” because it is not truly a loss in the sense that all of the interest earned technically did not cost me anything.
With the recent mini bull run, my Crypto Earn portfolio is up 18% resulting in a total of 2439 USD in earnings in the last 4 weeks. You can track my earnings progress on the four major interest-earning platforms that I use by checking out this Google Spreadsheet.
A large chunk of my Crypto Earn portfolio is in BTC (Bitcoin) and ETH (Ethereum) so it makes sense why I am up so much. BTC is currently at its local high of 13k USD while ETH is sitting at 408 USD. Even though the price of CRO dropped, my legacy coins are able to absorb the losses.
CRO Earnings
CDC changed the cash back rewards on the Icy White Card from 4% to 5% which went into effect at the beginning on October 2020. The extra 1% is adding up as I am using my card for nearly all purchases possible.
Just this week alone, I got roughly 1065 CRO from staking, earning, and cash back rewards. With the price of CRO at 0.1 USD, that is 106 USD that I can use to pay off bills, treat myself to some takeout food, or top off my card to churn out more CRO.
Conclusion & Prospect
I completely understand if many users are upset with the way Crypto.com handled the changes made to the CRO ecosystem—mainly, the steep drop in APRs for CRO on Crypto Earn without prior warning. Being a devout user of the platform, this move was a slap in the face given that the MCO Swap incident happened only a couple of months ago. Clearly, they should know better than to pull something like that again, yet, they did. The price of CRO tanked as a result of their decision, dropping almost 50%, as expected because they lost a lot of trust from the community.
The massive change to the CRO ecosystem was followed by an AMA with Kris Marszalek last Wednesday October 23rd, 2020. We got the usual spiel of sustainability and thinking about the platform’s future which was why they made those changes. Adjusting the yields on CRO was expected because 18% did not seem sustainable and most platforms do adjust their rates. However, major changes need to be communicated and addressed to users beforehand and not out of the blue.
Moving forward, Marszalek said CDC will try its best to provide ample time to users before making such big changes. I believe they should follow in Celsius Network’s footsteps and do AMAs to announce major changes before they go into effect.
As I mentioned in my previous reports, the crypto space is new and platforms like CDC are still adjusting and evolving to match the needs of users. Sustainability is critical for the platform’s survival and tough decisions need to be made for the sake of the platform.
In light of the recent bullishness of the crypto space, I am giving Crypto.com one last chance to reward loyal users and investors of the platform, and to better communicate any major changes moving forward.
What I Am Doing
This section is dedicated to paid subscribers as I will go into details of what moves I am making with my interest-earning portfolios.
You are currently reading the Free Version. If you would like more information, please consider switching to a paid subscription.
Each week I will report on a different interest-earning platform that I use—mainly, Celsius Network, Bitrue, Crypto.com, and BlockFi.
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