Crypto.com Instant Deposit is not really Instant

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In December, Crypto.com launched Instant Deposits in US, allowing users to purchase Cryptocurrency immediately after connecting their bank account to the app. The way instant purchase work is that you enter your bank’s login credentials to Crypto.com app. Then the CDC (Crypto Dot Com) can pull funds from your bank account. The issue with this method is that even though you can purchase Cryptocurrency instantly after connecting your bank account, you can’t do anything else with it – stake it, move it to DeFi, or stake it for a Crypto.com Visa card, which is the biggest issue. 

As I mentioned previously, I decided to stake $40,000 worth of CRO to get the Icy White Visa.  When navigating the Crypto.com app, I was offered 3 different ways of depositing USD to my account:

  1. Link Bank Account (Instant Deposit) – This option is supposed to give me instant option to buy Cryptocurrency, even before the funds are processed
  2. Bank Deposit – ACH transfer which takes 3-5 days. No fee charged by Crypto.com. But a lot of US Banks still charge ACH fees
  3. Wire Transcer – Wire transfer from my bank, taking 1-2 days. Again no fees by Crypto.com, but banks might still charge outgoing wire transfer fee. 
crypto_com deposit options

Using Crypto.com Instant Deposit to stake for a Visa Card

Not knowing much about the process, linking my bank account and using Crypto.com instant deposit seemed to be the easiest and fastest solution to get my CRO and to stake for my Icy Visa Card. 

Next screen gives little bit more information on how the instant deposit works:

There are 3 steps to Crypto.com instant deposit:

  1. Link Your Bank Account – This is when you enter you bank credentials
  2. Initiate Deposit – This is when Crypto.com gives you the funds to your account, and you can buy Cryptocurrency immediatelly
  3. Deposit Settled – Only after the deposit is settled, your find are available for withdrawal. This can take up to 7 BUSINESS DAYS (so around 9 regular days, which is like forever in cryptocurrency world). 
crypto_com instant deposit

Since I was not planning to “Withdraw” any Cryptocurrency, but instead Stake it for the Icy White Card, I decided to go ahead and load my balance with instant deposit and buy $40,000 worth of CRO. To my surprise, after I bought the CRO and went to apply for the Visa card, I got following error: 

“Error: Please try again or contact support at contact@crypto.com for assistance.(error code: not_enough_collateral_after_lock)”

crypto_com not_enough_collateral_after_lock

Even though I had a hint that this is caused by the 7 business day processing period, I still reached out to customer support to find out what is going on. Sure enough, this was their reply:

Please note that the error code in question is prompted as you are attempting to use the funds from the Instant Deposit to upgrade your stake.

With that in mind please note that this is not allowed. the instant deposit amount can only be used for crypto purchases and cannot be withdrawn, i.e. staked for a Crypto.com Visa Card until it settles.

The deposit takes 7 business days to settle. Only afterwards you will be able to use the funds to upgrade your stake.

Please refer to our official FAQ for the specifics of the ACH Pull feature.

I would prefer this information to be super clear in the app, when purchasing Crypto. Unfortunately there is not link to these FAQs at any point in the process of using the Instant Deposit function. 

What you can’t do with your funds when you use Crypto.com instant deposit?

Looking at the FAQ page, there is a list of actions that you can’t do with the funds that you deposited using Instant Deposit:

  • Fiat Withdrawal
  • Transfer to the Crypto.com Exchange
  • CRO Staking on Crypto.com Visa Card
  • Crypto Wallet transfers
  • Spend via Crypto.com Pay
  • Pruchasing Gift Cards
  • Staking in the Earn Wallet
  • Top up Crypto.com Visa Card
  • Transfer to Crypto.com Defi Wallet
  • Other Outgoing channels from Crypto.com
Quite a long list for sure. And most of the things on the list definitely make sense – Crypto.com doesn’t want the funds to leave their platform until it is fully processed. However I don’t understand why Staking is an issue, especially if they already let you buy CRO cryptocurrency. 

How long does the Crypto.com Instant Deposit take to clear

Based on Crypto.com FAQ page, the instant deposit takes 7 business days to clear and then the restrictions are lifted. I reached out to customer support after 7 business days, because my instant deposit was still locked and I could not stake for the Visa Card. I was told that it will be cleared the next day, because the day I deposited money is actually day 0 and doesn’t count towards the 7 days countdown. 

What is the worst about the process is that the money actually left my bank account 3 days after I initiated the deposit. So Crypto.com had my money, there was no way for me to revert the transactions, but it took another 4 BUSINESS DAYS (not calendar days) for the transaction to clear. That is another whole week. 

Fortunately for me, my instant deposit really cleared on the 7th business day. But not everyone has the same experience. There are Redditors claiming their instant deposits take way over 10 days to clear and their funds are just stuck with Crypto.com. Here are just a few out of many complaints about this:

And there is many more. Definitely it is an issue for many Crypto.com users, and most of them prefer different method of loading their accounts. 

Crypto.com instant deposit and staking for a rewards Visa card

I think using instant deposit to stake for the Visa cards is a horrible idea. There are 2 ways to go about this:

  • You deposit you fiat to Crypto.com and immediately buy CRO to stake for card. Let’s say you buy $40,000 worth of CRO. The problem is that now you have to wait at least 7 business days (9 calendar days) to stake this CRO for the card. What if the price of CRO in the meantime declines? 9 days is a long time in Crypto world. The price of one crypto currency can change significantly in this time. And that is exactly what happened to me – by the time my instant deposit cleared, my CRO was worth less than $40,000. 
crypto_com balance below staking

Now you have to figure out how to buy additional CRO so you have enough to stake for the card. But you don’t want to use instant deposit, because you are back to the same issue – you don’t know how much is it going to be worth in 7 days. 

You can use other payment methods like ACH or Wire Transfer. Those take only 2-3 in most cases. 

I did something else – I transferred some BTC from my mining profits, and traded it for CRO to make up for the difference. The reason I did it is that it was instant – no waiting, no 7 days, the BTC was in my account within 30ish minutes and it was immediately available to me. One of the main reasons why Bitcoin has such a bright future. 

 

  • 2nd way is to deposit your money, wait 7 business days, and only after your instant deposit is cleared you buy $40,000 worth of CRO to stake for the card. This way you don’t have to worry about CRO price decrease between the time you initiate the deposit and the time it clears. 

Honestly, none of these are really good options. It would be much more practical to either use different payment method. 

4 thoughts on “Crypto.com Instant Deposit is not really Instant”

  1. OMG Yes. The Crypto.com instant deposit is a absolute joke. My whole account got blocked while waiting for the funds to clear. For a large company like Crypto.com, they should be better at things like this. Coinbase for example only takes 4 or 5 days to clear, and it doesn’t block your account from doing other things while you are waiting.

    • Yes Sir. I am in the exact same situation. Was not clear that I could not move my LTC after instant deposit. I have to wait 5 more business days and LTC has fluctuated. ON the 7th day, I will be calling. I have a hedge fund to move LTC to so I can begin trading platform. Frustrating.. Need a new exchange! Searching now.

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