Crypto.com Progress Report (Free) 📈
HODLer's Den By Aromatic (Free Version)
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Disclaimer: Nothing in this report constitutes investment advice—I am just reporting on my accounts and its progress on each platform. You should not use this report to make financial decisions. I recommend you seek professional advice from someone who is authorized to provide investment advice.
Hey everyone and welcome to the HODLer’s Den!
Here you will find information on my crypto investment portfolio straight from a HODLer’s perspective.  This section will focus on HODLing cryptos and interest-earning platforms.
Crypto.com
To put the reports back into sync, this week we will discuss Crypto.com (CDC) even though it has only been 3 weeks since the previous one—normally, it should be 4 weeks due to the 4 interest earning platforms that I use.
Update
Even though it has only been 3 weeks, CDC has been very active listing a bunch of new coins on the platform. The newly listed coins are mostly DeFi (Decentralized Finance) coins which is currently the hot commodity in crypto. Even though they added a bunch of coins for users to purchase and earn interest on, many of these coins are unavailable to United States users like myself.
Some of the newly listed coins include: RUB, REN, BAT, BNT, CKB, COMP, BGN, RON, STX, IRIS, DOT, KSM, OMG, CELR, and ILS. This is in addition to many other coins already listed on CDC.
Aside from listing a new coins, CDC added a recurring buy feature. However, it currently only applies to specific coins such as CRO (Crypto.com Coin), BTC (Bitcoin), and ETH (Ethereum). The recurring buys offered by CDC is not as flexible as some other platforms such as BlockFi. As you can see below, there is a monthly limit depending on the amount of CRO staked, and the minimum amount is 50 USD—this is a very steep amount for most users.
In addition, you must use a credit card which may involve hidden fees from your provider. There is also a maximum limit to the number of recurring buys per month and the frequency of recurring buys are very limited.
MCO Swap Reminder
If you still hold MCO (Monaco), I highly suggest you decide what you want to do as soon as possible. CDC users must initiate the swap before 2 Nov 2020 at 23:59 UTC. You must take action, otherwise you risk losing all of your MCO: this process is not automated. They currently offer a 20% bonus for early swappers if you complete the conversion process before 2 Sep 2020 23:59 UTC. Below is the 20% bonus swap rate for MCO to CRO.
If you do decide to swap MCO, definitely take advantage of the early swap bonus of 20%—the bonus CRO allowed me to stake for the Icy White debit card. If you want a refresher on the MCO Swap, you can read the previous Crypto.com Progress Report.
Crypto.com Pay
A feature I did not mention in my previous reports is Crypto.com Pay (CP) which works in the same manner as Apple Pay or Chase Pay among many other forms of mobile payments without the need of a physical card. CP is powered by CRO so you must use CRO coins to pay for all transactions. CDC currently offers a bunch of cash back rewards for using CP. For example, earlier today I used CP to purchase a 50 USD Whole Foods Market gift card.
The process was simple and easy to use. In addition, CDC offers great cash back for using CP. I was able to earn 10% back in the form of CRO—I basically spent 45 USD to get a 50 USD gift card for Whole Foods Market!
CDC currently has a large selection of merchants to choose from when purchasing a gift card using CP. You will most likely find some way to save money and earn cash back rewards if you decide to dabble with CP.
The only issue is that you may have to buy predetermine amounts—10 USD, 25 USD, 50 USD, 100 USD, etc—when purchasing a gift card. Not only that but they can also run out of stock on the lower amounts—for example, the 10 USD gift card for Whole Foods Market was sold out.
As you can see, the 50 USD gift card costed roughly 290 CRO and I instantly got my Pay Rewards of 29 CRO—10% cash back in CRO!
With the recent update, Crypto.com Pay now supports CRO payments from any ERC-20 wallet. You can read all about it on their blog here. I definitely agree with the sentiment below regarding CP:
A New Card Challenger Arrives
The Swipe Card, supported by the Binance platform, is the ultimate CDC Card clone with nearly identical benefits and tiers. I will do a quick comparison between the two companies and what they have to offer.
The free tier, the Saffron Card, requires no staking of Swipe (SXP) coins. This is equivalent to CDC’s Midnight Blue Card, however, the Saffron Card offers the benefit of Spotify which CDC does not. The Saffron Card is the clear winner here.
The next tier is the Sky Card which is equivalent to CDC’s Ruby Steel Card. Both offer 2% cash back, but the Sky Blue Card comes with ridiculous benefits for Spotify, Netflix, and Amazon Prime whereas the Ruby Steel Card only offers Spotify. The Sky Blue requires 300 SXP to be staked which is roughly 945 USD (using 3.15 USD per SXP) while the Ruby Steel requires 1000 CRO to be staked (170 USD using 0.17 USD per CRO). With a steep price difference, CDC’s Ruby Steel Card wins here.
Next we have the Steel Card which is equivalent to the Icy White/Rose Gold Card from CDC. Both offer 4% cash back. At this tier, the cards from each company offers the same benefits of Spotify, Netflix, and Amazon Prime but then they each offer their own exclusive perks. I do not want to list every single detail, but you can make the comparison for yourself here using CDC’s card support page. The Steel Card requires 3000 SXP which is around 9450 USD whereas the Icy White requires 100000 CRO (17000 USD). At this tier, the Steel Card beats CDC’s Icy White/Rose Gold Card in terms of pricing.
The highest tier is the Slate Card which is comparable to CDC’s Obsidian Black Card. Both offer 5% cash back and overlapping benefits—again, you can use the previous link to make the comparison between perks. You will need roughly 94500 USD to obtain the Slate Card and a whopping 170000 USD to get the Obsidian Black Card. At current prices of CRO and SXP, the Slate Card wins here in terms of accessibility.
Both companies offer exceptionally great cards with nearly identical use cases. Users must decide which one best fits their needs. The Swipe card pays all cash back in BTC while CDC’s card pays all cash back in CRO. From my quick comparison between the two, it seems like the Swipe Card is more accessible to users due to the lower pricing of most card tiers when compared to CDC. As the price of SXP and CRO changes, this comparison will no longer be accurate.
Interest Earned
During the span of 3 weeks, my CDC earn account grew an extra 894 USD. The crypto market is currently moving sideways without too much action which is good for HODLers as it brings stability and allows for accumulation. Bitcoin is sitting at 11.5k USD and Ethereum is at 403 USD—both of which make a huge chunk of my portfolio.
You can track my earnings progress on the four major interest-earning platforms that I use by checking out this Google Spreadsheet. As you can see, my total earnings from CDC grew roughly 7% over the course of just 3 weeks.
More CRO
If you follow my weekly progress reports, you will know that I recently upgraded to the Icy White Card which means I now get an extra 2% APR (Annual Percentage Rate), in the form of CRO, across all of my locked up assets earning interests. Over time I think this change will have a huge impact my earnings.
I totaled up all the CRO Earn (Extra) and it came out to roughly 345 additional CRO each week—that is 58 USD extra each week by upgrading my card tier. If I include the CRO staked for the Icy White Card and the CRO locked up, I get around 811 CRO or 137 USD each week.
Conclusion & Prospect
I am satisfied with Crypto.com and I hope they continue to keep up the great work. From reading their blog, I know they are busy at work trying to improve the platform and assisting with crypto adoption. The recent changes to Crypto.com Pay will help with the progress as it now supports CRO payments from ERC-20 wallets.
Speaking of CP, I hope they eventually allow users to buy specific amount when purchasing gift cards. Regardless, CDC offers a large selection of merchants to choose from when using CP and I could not be happier with the process. I can easily use the CRO I earn via interest to pay for my weekly groceries while getting 10% cash back at Whole Foods Market.
The addition of recurring buys is great for CDC users. There are currently too many restrictions to using recurring buys which complicates the process. They should follow BlockFi’s model to allow for a streamlined way to do recurring buys. But remember that BlockFi is just an interest earning platform while CDC handles an exchange and a debit card among many other features.
I believe the extra 2% earnings in the form of CRO will have a huge impact on my portfolio in the near future. It is also a great way to DCA (Dollar Cost Average) into CRO. Ever since I received my Icy White Card, I have been using it for all my purchases because 4% cash back in CRO is too good to miss out on. Remember that as CRO’s price increase, the cash back amount also increases. From a HODLer’s perspective, CDC offers the perfect ecosystem of generating interest and the ability to utilize the interest earnings.
Each week I will report on a different interest-earning platform that I use—mainly, Celsius Network, Bitrue, Crypto.com, and BlockFi.
If you do not have an account with Crypto.com and would like to support my work, please use this referral link to sign up and we both get 50 USD paid in CRO! Much is appreciated!