- >Best Crypto Lending
- >Crypto.com Lending Review: Earn, Borrow and Invest Crypto
- Premiere crypto-lending platform with big earning potential
- Proprietary Visa card that offers crypto cash back
- Works in conjunction with Crypto.com Exchange and Cronos (CRO)
- Available in USA, Europe and more
General Overview
Pros
VISA cards that have attractive bonuses and cash back
Biweekly events that offer users the ability to purchase crypto at a discounted price
Great referral program
Incredible interest rates available to both borrowers and lenders
Able to spend with a wide variety of cryptocurrencies and stablecoins
No minimum or maximum deposit limits for interest accounts
Cons
Users must stake CRO tokens to gain access to highest tier of lending rates
App is accessible on mobile devices only
Only available in select countries
Crypto.com Lending Overview
Crypto.com is one of the most well-known names in the crypto space. Founded in 2016, the platform is focused on providing various financial services to crypto users. In addition to their crypto lending platform, their most popular product is their various VISA cards that give users access to up to 5% cashback rewards on all purchases. The company also gives users access to the Crypto.com exchange.
Members who are willing to purchase and hold Cronos (CRO) tokens will be able to get better deals on various services, such as a 100% reimbursement on Spotify, Netflix, and Amazon Prime. Other perks include access to an airport lounge and discounts on Expedia and Airbnb. These perks do require holding CRO. One example of this is that users can receive 5% cashback rewards on all purchases with their Crypto.com card, but they’ll need to stake 1 million CRO for 6 months.
Other available services include a crypto wallet, the ability to earn interest on your cryptocurrency by lending it, an automated crypto trading system (access is country dependent), and a crypto payment processing system.
Crypto.com Interest Accounts
Looking to earn some passive income on your crypto?
Crypto.com offers Crypto.com Earn, which lets users earn up to 14.5% APY on their crypto.
This product works similarly to other lending institutions, like Nexo.io. These companies operate like market makers in traditional finance, meaning they lend out your crypto and give you a percentage of the yield.
Because the returns are so significant, there are concerns with how sustainable these services really are. Thus far, however, the system has been remarkably reliable, but it doesn’t hurt that crypto has been extremely bullish in recent years.
There are three different periods for those who make deposits into Crypto Earn: 3-month, 1-month, and flexible.
Much like the crypto loan system, Crypto.com users who stake CRO can get better returns on their interest accounts, known as Crypto Earn. However, the default interest rates that don’t require you to stake CRO are also quite attractive.
There are a huge number of cryptocurrencies that can be deposited to an Earn account. Here are some of the most popular:
- Bitcoin
- Ether
- Litecoin
- Ripple
- Binance Coin
- CRO
- LINK
- Solana
- Basic Attention Token
- Maker
- EOS
- Stellar
- Cosmos
- Tezos
- Bitcoin Cash
Stablecoins include:
- PAX Standard
- PAX Gold
- USDC
- USDT
- TrueUSD
- TrueGBP
- TrueCAD
- TrueAUD
More tokens are expected to be added over time.
Crypto.com Loans
Here are some important aspects to know about Crypto.com’s lending practices:
Those who stake CRO get lower rates of interest compared to users who don’t, which is an important consideration.
Borrowing comes with an 8% annual interest rate if the user stakes 10000 CRO or more. Anyone staking less will have to pay an annual 12% interest on their loan. In terms of collateral options, Crypto.com users are able to back their loans with Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, CRO, or Litecoin. The credit received by the user will be in the form of a USD-denominated stablecoin.
There are no credit checks or repayment deadlines and the minimum loan amount is $100 while the maximum loan amount is $1,000,000.
Currently, only users in Hong Kong, Singapore, Switzerland, Malta, or the United States are able to access Crypto.com’s credit offerings. If a loan is not repaid in 12 months or the value of the user’s collateral reaches 85% of the value of the loan balance, then Crypto.com will liquidate the user’s crypto holdings.
Extra Features
Crypto.com offers a number of additional features on top of their lending platform, many of which mimic financial services you’d see at a traditional bank. In addition to borrowing and earning interest, users can also trade between crypto assets, become a merchant for payment processing services, and get a VISA card with a cashback rewards program.
Much like the lending platform, users of these other Crypto.com services can get more bang for their buck if they’re willing to stake CRO tokens.
The payment processing platform for merchants involves no fees, as long as the merchant is settling in crypto, which is helpful. However, merchants who wish to receive their payments in fiat currency pay a 0.5% processing fee.
Finally, there’s the Crypto.com VISA debit cards. These cards come with a variety of benefits, but the strongest perks are for users willing to stake large amounts of CRO. For example, staking 1 million CRO gets you 5% cashback on all purchases; rebates for your monthly payments to Spotify, Netflix, and Amazon Prime; discounts at Expedia and Airbnb; and much more. Those who don’t stake CRO only get cashback rewards of 1%.
History of Crypto.com
Before the cryptocurrency boom, the crypto.com domain was registered by well-known cryptographer Matt Blaze way back in 1993. Blaze was a user on the infamous Cypherpunks mailing list back in the 90s, and in 1994, he found a critical vulnerability in the Clipper chip. Blaze has also been on the board at the Tor Project since 2016.
Monaco bought the Crypto.com domain name from Blaze in 2018. At the time, Monaco was a new token that had completed an initial coin offering in the previous year. After the purchase of the Crypto.com domain, a rebranding occurred and the project began working on providing additional financial services for the cryptocurrency ecosystem.
How to Borrow on Crypto.com
You can get loans using cryptocurrency as collateral on the Crypto.com Exchange (currently not available in the app).
This can be a good way to get cash immediately without having to sell your crypto. In fact, if your crypto goes up, you can pay back your loan with your gains. Of course if you borrow too much and crypto crashes you risk liquidation.
Getting a loan on Crypto.com is relatively easy. Just head to the lending page, deposit your coins, and you have 12 months to repay the loan. You get better rates depending on how much CRO you have staked.
Currently you can get loans on your USDC, USDT, BTC and ETH although Crypto.com has plans to add more cryptos in the future.
What Are Crypto Earn Fees?
The Crypto.com Earn product doesn’t have fees in the traditional sense.
You’re free to deposit your various cryptocurrencies into Crypto Earn for no charge. Be warned, however, that most deposits require a minimum of $250 worth of a particular crypto to start earning.
If you buy your crypto using Crypto.com, you will also pay fees during that process.
Crypto.com Lending FAQ
Crypto.com’s various financial services have their own fee structures. For the exchange, trading fees range from 0.04% to 0.20% for executed trades. Rebates on these fees are available for CRO token stakers.
There are no fees involved with Crypto.com merchant accounts, unless the user wishes to convert their received cryptocurrency payments into fiat currency. These transactions incur a 0.5% fee.
There are a number of fees associated with Crypto.com cards, such as ATM withdrawal fees and interbank exchange rates. Users can receive discounts on these fees or avoid them completely by staking CRO. There is also a $50 fee for closing a card account and receiving funds back via a bank transfer; however, users can simply spend the remaining amount of money left on their card for free.
Crypto.com Private is a set of special services and features available to top tier customers. Some of these include:
Access to Crypto Invest
Over-the-counter trading of CRO
Access to Crypto.com’s research reports
Access to industry events
An inheritance service
Priority customer support
The company is headquartered in Hong Kong, although they also have an office in Singapore.
The CRO token can be staked by users to gain benefits, such as rebates on fees or better rates of returns on interest accounts. Fee rebates are also available on the exchange when users pay fees in CRO.