I decided to diversify my investments little bit more and so I started with Crypto.com and applied for their Icy Visa Card (the card was already delivered). I was thinking about this move for quite a while, but finally pulled the trigger a week or so ago. I want to write mainly about my experience with that card after I start using it more, so this article is more of an overview of the benefits and reasons why I chose to invest in CRO and Crypto.com
What is Crypto.com Visa Card and what are the benefits
For those who only saw the infamous Crypto.com commercial with Matt Damon, but never looked into the details of what this company has to offer, I want to summarize their Visa Debit Cards offering. Crypto.com offers multiple products, like trading Crypto currency or Crypto Wallet. I am however not a crypto trader and decided to give CRO shot mainly for the Visa Cards benefits.
First think that needs to be mentioned is that these cards are Visa Prepaid Debit cards. Not credit cards. Which means you need to load it with your own cash before you use it. Also worth noting that the CRO you buy to stake for cards can’t be used to load your prepaid card. You need to load it with actual money.
Currently there are 5 different level of Cards offered. To reach a certain level, you need to buy Crypto.com own currency CRO and stake it for a period of 6 months. The chart of Crypto.com page is great at summarizing the staking requirements for all the cards they offer.
As you can see, the staking requirements go from $0 for Midnight Blue card to $400,000 for Obsidian Card, and the benefits change drastically with each tier.
- Cashback 1% – 8%: Cashback is paid on your card purchases and is paid in CRO cryptocurrency. You can sell it to USD if you want to, or keep it in CRO if you feel more adventurous. Generally speaking 8% cashback is unheard of, but it also means that you have to stake $400,000 for 6 months and that is to be honest a lot of money.
- Spotify reimbursement – up to $13.99 a month. Cards eligible are Ruby ($400 staking) and up
- Netflix reimbursement – up to $13.99 a month. Cards eligible are with staking of $4,000 and up
- Amazon Prime Membership reimbursement – up to $14.99 a month. Cards eligible are with staking $40,000 an up
- Expedia discount 10% – up to $50 discount a month. Cards eligible are with staking $40,000 an up
- Airbnb discount 10% – up to $100 discount a month. Only the highest tier card with $400,000 staking requirement is eligible
- Loungkey – Airport lounge access and restaurant discounts. $4,000 stake and up eligible. List of all Lounges that you can access with LoungKey is published here
Crypto.com Visa cards staking rewards benefit
This information is actually not that easy to find, but in to the rewards listed above, you also get staking rewards benefit with your Crypto.com Visa Debit card. By staking reward I mean interested paid to you for the amount that you are staking to get your card. Here are the staking rewards that you get:
- Jade Green & Royal Indigo – 10%
- Frosted Rose Gold & Icy White – 12%
- Obsidian – 12%
These cards are a great way if you are bullish on CRO. Current price of CRO is around $0.40. The all time high was almost $0.90 per CRO, when Crypto.com announced that they purchased the naming rights to the famous Staples Center arena in Los Angeles. The deal was worth over $700 and happened in November 17th 2021. Just for comparison, BTC price that day was $60,000 and today is $40,000.
Why did I stake $40,000 for Icy White Crypto.com card?
I decided to diversify my crypto portfolio and buy $40,000 of CRO to stake for the Icy White Crypto.com Visa card and earn staking rewards of 12%. Here is a list of reasons why I did that:
- Right now all my Cryptocurrency investment is in my Bitcoin miners. I wanted to diversify a little bit into a project which I believe will grow faster than BTC in the next few years, but it is not a “shitcoin” at the same time.
- 5% cashback – this is amazing benefit. There is no card out there that pays so much back on every day purchases. And even though the cashback is paid in CRO, I can just sell it for USD right away if I want to.
- 12% interest earned on my staking amount. Again, unheard of. Although very risky. Nobody knows how much CRO will be worth in the future.
- Spotify, Amazon and Netflix reimbursement – over $40 a month for free, while my money is already making 12%
- Loungkey access – not only you get access to lounges, but at some airports you get restaurant discounts of $28 per user. I travel a lot, so this can get handy.
Table of Crypto.com Visa cards rewards and benefits
Below is just a simple table if someone wants to copy it for their purposes.
| Obsidian | Icy White/Rose Gold | Jade Green/Royal Indigo | Ruby Steel | Midnight Blue | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CRO Stake required | $400,000 | $40,000 | $4,000 | $400 | $0 |
| CRO Stake Reward (interest on staked CRO) | 12% | 12% | 10% | 0% | 0% |
| CRO Cashback on purchases with the card | 8% | 5% | 3% | 2% | 1% |
| Spotify Reimbursement | Y | Y | Y | Y | |
| Netflix Reimbursement | Y | Y | Y | ||
| Amazon Prime Reimbursement | Y | Y | |||
| Expredia 10% Discount up to $50/month | Y | Y | |||
| Airbnb 10% Discount up to $100/month | Y | ||||
| Loungkey access | Y+guest | Y+guest | Y | ||
| Crypto.com Earn Bonus Reward | Y | Y | |||
| Exclusive Merchandise Welcome Pack | Y | Y |