Founded in 2016, Crypto.com is practically an old-timer in the fast-paced world of cryptocurrency exchanges. Crypto.com stands out as a one-stop shop for all your crypto transaction needs, making it a good fit for investors of any experience level.
Pros
- Over 90 cryptocurrencies available
- Visa card that allows you to spend your crypto and earn rewards
- Ability to earn interest on crypto holdings at a higher rate than the best high-yield savings accounts
Cons
- Hard-to-find educational resources
- Higher trading fees for low-volume traders, especially those without holdings of Crypto.com’s native cryptocurrency, Cronos (CRO)
- In-app live support can be slow
- Cashback rewards and other perks are paid out in CRO, meaning you may experience fluctuations in your rewards’ value and may also need to cash it out to GBP
With 10 million users across 90 countries, Crypto.com is a popular option for buying and selling a broad selection of cryptocurrencies. Founded in 2016, Crypto.com has established itself as something of a one-stop-shop for crypto enthusiasts, without being too complex for relative beginners.
The exchange’s NFT offering could add to the appeal if you want to get started with these assets but aren’t sure where to begin.
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Who should choose Crypto.com?
With its numerous perks and features, Crypto.com could be a particularly strong option for those willing to go all in on the platform. Large holdings of CRO, Crypto.com’s own cryptocurrency, for instance, mean lower trading fees and more rewards on the Crypto.com Visa card.
If you’re new to cryptocurrency, you may be overwhelmed by Crypto.com’s trading interface. You might seek out a more beginner-friendly – albeit much pricier – platform like Coinbase, our top pick for beginners, or Gemini. Both Coinbase Pro and Gemini Active Trader do offer lower trading fees for those willing to brave those platforms’ own more complex interfaces.
Regardless of which exchange you pick, remember that cryptocurrency is a highly volatile asset and that you may lose significant amounts of your investment, particularly in the short term. Make sure you don’t put more into Crypto.com (or any crypto exchange) than you can afford to lose.
Crypto.com Features
The founders of Crypto.com envision a future where cryptocurrency is a standard investment class rather than a curiosity. Whether you believe this will come to pass or not, Crypto.com can help you weave cryptocurrencies into your financial life. To that end, beyond the standard buying and selling of crypto, the platform offers the following useful features:
Cashback Visa Card
Crypto.com offers a prepaid Visa card that functions like a rewards debit card and can more easily allow you to spend your crypto holdings. Though it’s available to everyone, those who purchase and hold onto the platform’s native cryptocurrency, CRO, stand to earn the most.
The Crypto.com Visa Card is available with five reward tiers based on how much CRO you hold. Each generally provides rebates for certain types of services, like Spotify, Netflix or even Airbnb, some amount of free ATM withdrawals, and anywhere from 1% to 8% ‘cash back’.
While that last percentage is no doubt appealing, it’s truly only attainable for the diehard crypto enthusiast, requiring you to lock up £300,000 in the CRO token.
Note that ‘cash back’ in this case means CRO, which could be inconvenient if you’re using the card solely for rewards. You’ll likely need to convert CRO into fiat currency to access your cash back. It also means the value of your rewards may change unexpectedly as CRO can experience somewhat volatile price swings.
High interest rates
Like other major crypto exchanges, you can earn interest by choosing to loan your cryptocurrency to others. Borrowers may then use these loans to verify transactions for proof-of-stake currencies or for other purposes.
Through Crypto.com’s Earn programme, you can receive up to 14.5% per year on your deposits of more than 30 cryptocurrencies, depending on the cryptocurrency you select to loan out and the amount of CRO you hold in your account.
Rates may change, but you do have the option of locking in your rate (and therefore your crypto as well) for either a one-month or three-month term. You can also opt not to commit to a term and withdraw your crypto at any time.
Keep in mind that while these interest rates do trump most savings account rates out there, they’re riskier as they aren’t insured by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Also, you receive simple interest, meaning your earnings won’t compound over time.
Crypto.com NFTs
Crypto.com recently added a new functionality to its platform, allowing users to buy, sell, and showcase NFTs (non-fungible tokens). NFTs are unique digital assets, often taking the form of artwork or video content.
If you’re interested in investing in NFTs as well as cryptocurrencies, you might find the convenience of using the same platform to buy and sell both appealing.
Crypto.com does not charge fees for purchasing an NFT, but if you choose to resell you’ll pay a fee of 1.99%. Creators also pay a 1.99% fee for selling on the platform.
Crypto.com fees
Like many other crypto exchange platforms, Crypto.com uses a maker-taker fee structure. This means you pay a different fee depending on whether your order creates liquidity because there is no matching order (you are a maker), or your order reduces liquidity because it matches with an order already on the books (you are a taker).
In general, you can expect to pay a higher fee as a taker, although Crypto.com reduces fees based on your trading volume and whether or not you are staking CRO tokens. The more you trade over a 30-day period and the more CRO tokens you stake, the higher your discount.
The basic level of fees are as follows:
With CRO staking, you can reduce your fees even more by receiving a rebate of a percentage of your fee in CRO. For instance, if you qualify for a 10% discount on a maker and taker fee by staking 5,000 CRO, you can expect to effectively pay 0.36% rather than the listed 0.4%.
Cryptocurrencies on Crypto.com
Crypto.com supports over 90 Cryptocurrencies, including
- Bitcoin (BTC)
- Litecoin (LTC)
- Ethereum (ETH)
- Crypto.com Coin (CRO)
- Enjin Coin (ENJ)
- Basic Attention Token (BAT)
- Paxos Standard (PAX)
- USD Coin (USDC)
- OmiseGO (OMG)
- Kyber Network (KNC)
- 0x (ZRX)
- Chainlink (LINK)
- Origin (OGN)
- Algorand (ALGO)
- Elrond (eGLD)
- Band Protocol (BAND)
- XSGD (XSGD)
- Filecoin (FIL)
- Polkadot (DOT)
- Balancer (BAL)
- Dogecoin (DOGE)
