The most frustrating and counter-intuitive problem with “cryptocurrency,” is that despite the entire crypto market rocking a valuation of around $2 trillion, practically none of it can actually be used as an actual currency.
While the crypto-purists might argue with me here by pointing to Bitcoin’s adoption in El Salvador or try to show me all the ways that people can technically use extremely convoluted services to make online purchases using crypto – it’s glaringly obvious that spending crypto is still really difficult.
That’s why when Crypto.com announced that they’d be launching a crypto-friendly debit card in partnership with VISA back in March last year, I couldn’t help but jump onboard. It immediately struck me as an innovative and much-needed solution to one of the strangest problems in the crypto industry and I wanted to be a part of the first mass-scale effort to make cryptocurrency accessible to the general public.
Make sure to check out our full round-up of the best crypto cards to try right now
In This Review
Overall Experience with Crypto.com
So, roughly ten months ago, I staked $5,000 AUD into the native crypto.com token, CRO (Cronos token) for a metal crypto.com debit card. To clear up any confusion, crypto.com requires all users who want to gain access to the debit card to lock up an initial investment starting from $500 for a 6 month period — this is called “staking”. After your staking period is up, you’ll get a notification that your card is being sent out to you.
Now, as someone interested in personal finance and investing, the Crypto.com card was attractive not just because of its sheer novelty, but also because of the undeniably cool features that it offered:
- Free Netflix & Spotify
- Airport lounge access
- Fee-free cash withdrawal from any ATM
- Easily spend crypto on real products
When I first staked my AUD into CRO, I can’t say that I had a bulletproof, long-term investment thesis — I was honestly just interested to see what sort of product I’d end up with. Fast-forward to now and the token has grown from US$0.10 to US$0.48 — turning my staked amount from $5000 to roughly $19,000 – a pretty comfortable 380% return on my initial investment.
During this time I watched Crypto.com forge deals with the UFC, Formula 1 and the NBA. They purchased the ‘Staples Center’ home of the LA Lakers and renamed it the ‘Crypto.com Arena’ in a $700 million acquisition deal (the largest ever naming rights deal in history).
They also introduced glossy, big-budget advertising campaigns with Matt Damon as the face of their brand, pushing their platforms and services further into the mainstream.
The “Matt Damon” campaign is set to expand in 2022, with Crypto.com recruiting a whole host of new talent, including: UFC fighter Ronda Rousey, NBA all-star Carmelo Anthony, olympic snowboarder Lindsey Jacobellis, and retired astronaut: Scott Kelly. All of this inspired a good deal of confidence that I’d invested with the right company.
Personal Experience With the Crypto.com Card
When Jade Green card arrived in the mail a few months ago, I was stoked to see how it would work from a functional perspective. I was worried that the process of transferring crypto assets onto the card wouldn’t be super intuitive, but after opening up the app and putting a few hundred bucks onto the card in just a few seconds, I realized I had nothing to worry about.
Essentially, if you want to spend $100 worth of your Bitcoin that you have on the crypto.com app, you just go to the “card” section of the app and press “top up”. After you select that you want to top up from your Bitcoin wallet, it will transfer that $100 worth of Bitcoin into AUD on the card and you’re good to go.
The next best feature I didn’t even pay much attention to was getting a 3% cashback rebate on all of my transactions. Whenever I make a purchase using my card, 3% of the value of that transaction gets sent back to my account as CRO, which really begins to stack up if you’re making frequent or large purchases with the card. Another huge win was finding out at the Jade Green card also lets me withdraw up to $800 fee-free from any ATM.
Different Crypto.com Cards Explained
So, there are 5 tiers of cards that you can stake your fiat dollars into CRO for, with each more expensive card providing more unique and enticing features.
Midnight Blue
If you only want the absolute basics, like being able to spend your cryptocurrency more easily, then the Midnight Blue card is what you’re looking for. It doesn’t require any lock up period, and anyone with the crypto.com app can apply for it. Users will see 1% of their total purchase value returned to their accounts as CRO token as well being able to withdraw $200 for free from any ATM each month.
Ruby Steel
Next is the Ruby Steel card, which you’ll need to stake $500 worth of CRO for. The Ruby card gives its users free Spotify, via a 100% rebate program, where whatever amount you spend on your Spotify membership is deposited back into your account. Users can withdraw $400 for free from any ATM and will see 2% of their total purchase value returned to them in the form of CRO.
Royal Indigo & Jade Green
If you’re looking to get the best range of features for the lowest price tag the Royal Indigo and Jade Green cards are probably your best bet. These cards provide their users with access to the following:
- Free Spotify
- Free Netflix
- Free airport lounge access
Users can withdraw $800 for free from any ATM and will also see 3% of all their purchases returned as a CRO cashback reward.
Frosted Rose Gold & Icy White
For those of you willing to lock up $50,000 in CRO token for 6 months, the Gold and White cards step the features up in a pretty major way. Not only do you get 5% of all of your purchases rebated to you as CRO, you also gain access to all of the following:
- Free Spotify
- Free Netflix
- Free Amazon Prime
- 10% off all Expedia purchases
- Free airport lounge access for you and 1 extra guest.
- Access to to crypto.com premium service
- Receive undisclosed bonus rewards as well as exclusive merch packs.
Obsidian
The Obsidian card is where things get absolutely wild. If you’re doing well enough that you have a spare $500,000 to drop on a debit card, then the features that come with Obsidian may prove to be pretty enticing:
- Free Spotify
- Free Netflix
- Free Amazon Prime
- 10% off all Expedia purchases
- 10% off Airbnb transactions
- Free airport lounge access for you and 1 extra guest.
- Access to to crypto.com premium service
- Receive undisclosed bonus rewards as well as exclusive merch packs.
- Private jet partnership.
That’s right, the obsidian card comes with its own private jet partnership option, as well as rebating 8% of all your transactions as CRO. As someone who “only” gets 3% back on their card, the amount of CRO you can accumulate simply by using your card frequently is pretty impressive.
A general disclaimer is important here for the airport lounge access subject, as all crypto.com’s lounge access is provided in partnership with LoungeKey, which offers access to over 500 premium airport lounges in more than 300 cities worldwide, irrespective of the airline or travel class.
The Downsides of the Crypto.com Card
The biggest issue with the Crypto.com card is that you have to stake your money into CRO for a minimum of 180 days and once the staking period is over you still need to keep the equivalent value of $500 or $5000 staked in order to use the card.
Owing to the volatile nature of the crypto market, the dollar value of the amount you stake could change drastically in the time that you’re waiting for your card. I was lucky enough to have locked up my CRO well before crypto.com blew up, but if I’d waited and staked 6 months later when the price was high, I’d currently be down a substantial amount.
The second slight issue I have with the card is that crypto.com currently don’t offer digital wallet access, meaning that you can connect the crypto visa card to your Apple Pay, Google Pay or anything else like that. It’s not a major drawback, but it is worth mentioning if you prefer to leave your wallet at home sometimes.
Crypto.com Card Conclusion
I found the crypto.com card to be pretty awesome. Obviously the more you’re willing to stake for it, the more cool features you’ll receive. Personally, I’m really happy with the Indigo card because it’s perfect for my finances, and I really couldn’t go past getting free Spotify and Netflix as well as the sheer utility of being able to spend my crypto assets super easily.
However, some people have made the observation that customer service with Crypto.com (being headquartered in Singapore) isn’t amazing. While I have not had any negative experiences in terms of customer service, it is a widely reported downside to crypto.com.
Ultimately, if you’re sick of getting hit with all of the different fees for withdrawing crypto into your fiat bank account, then the crypto.com card is a very solid option — it makes the process of actually utilizing your cryptocurrency cheap and efficient.
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