**TL;DR: There are much better alternatives for everything that CRO/CDC offers (see points below).**
This post will probably get downvoted and buried to hell because I know there are a LOT of CRO holders here, but people will want to understand these points, add a dash of skepticism to things they read on public forums, and critically assess their investments and competition of those investments.
First off, I will give credit where credit is due:
1. They own the greatest domain.
2. They have been KILLING it with their marketing. (Could their massive budget also be used to pay online shills?)
However, neither of these things, guarantee that CRO will be a great investment.
In fact, I will argue that it is actually NOT a great investment because there are much better options for everything that CRO/CDC offers.
1. CRO Argument: **3% back on spending with locking up $4,000 worth of CRO for 6 months.**
* Better Alternative: **Coinbase debit card 4% back on spending with $0 lock up.** Obviously superior, period, end of discussion.
2. CRO Argument: Yeah, but… **10% staking reward for 6 month lock-up on Jade/Indigo card+ and Netflix/Spotify reimbursement.**
* Better Alternatives: If you actually want to hold CRO, you can get up to **60% APR on [the CRO/OSMO LP on Osmosis] ( with only 14-day lock-up AND rewards paid during unbonding.**
* The added rewards will MORE than cover the cost of Netflix/Spotify.
* Some better rewards on other coins:
Coin | APR | Lock-up
—|—|—-
ATOM | 14% | 21 days
OSMO | 81% | 14 days
JUNO | 112% | 28 days
SCRT | 24% | 21 days
UST | 19.5% | 0 days
3. CRO Argument: Yeah, but… you could get **higher earn rates on other coins.**
* Better Alternative: Sure, you may get slightly higher rates, but **you have to lock-up your coins for 3 months and stake $4,000 in CRO** (both have opportunity costs and many people undervalue how much sacrificing liquidity could cost you when better opportunities arise).
* I’d much rather lend my BTC, ETH, etc. on **platforms with good returns and ZERO lock-up time and ZERO other coin stake** – like FTX app, Celsius, and Ledn.
* BTC Earn Rates:
* CDC: 6.5% with 3 month lock-up and $4,000 CRO stake. Stake less CRO or only 1 month lock-up and rate drops to 4.5%.
* FTX App: 8% with 0 lock-up or other coin stake (up to $10k BTC)
* Ledn: 6.25% with 0 lock-up or other coin stake (up to 0.5 BTC)
* Celsius: 6.20% with 0 lock-up or other coin stake (up to 0.25 BTC)
4. The exchange itself – **Crypto.com trade fees* are ATROCIOUS** compared to some alternatives. CDC Exchange isn’t even available to the US yet. US has to use the Crypto.com App, which the fees are even worse.
Exchange | Trade Fee | Discount
—|—|—-
CDC | 0.4% | 0.36% with staking 5000+ CRO
Binance (.com and .us) | 0.1% | 0.075% with ANY BNB
Kucoin | 0.1% | 0.08% with ANY KCS
FTX.com | 0.02-0.07% | 3%+ with $100+ FTT
FTX.us | 0.1%-0.4% | None
Kraken | 0.16%-0.26% | None
Gemini | 0.25-0.35% | None
*Level 1 trade fees as of date of this post.
All in all, CDC is a decent platform and does a lot of good by spreading awareness about crypto, but, for the reasons above, I don’t believe it do be a great platform, nor CRO to be a great investment.
Happy hodling.
—
EDIT: LOL at some of these comments.
“You’re just a Coinbase shill!”
“You’re just an Osmosis shill!”
“I made money with CRO so you’re wrong!”
“You want me to use 20 different platforms?!” — Uh no, I’m just giving examples.
Look… for those saying “I’m willing to give up some yield and pay higher trade fees for the convenience of one app” that is totally a totally FAIR statement and I’m happy that it works for you.
The point I’m making is not against you.
My point is against the countless threads and comments hyping up CRO as some god-tier coin that is the best and most undervalued investment on earth and going to make all the holders millionaires.
You’re all acting like I said CDC is total garbage and sucks. Go re-read — I said it’s a decent platform with excellent marketing and does good spreading awareness… but there are better options for trading and earning yield.
“4% Coinbase card isn’t available in my country” — Another fair statement, but you’re missing my point. Again, I’m not saying CDC is bad, just that it’s not the best thing in the world. Obviously I don’t know every credit card that’s offered in every single country, but even outside of crypto cards there are credit cards that offer 3-5% cash back/travel points and sign up bonuses worth $500-1,000 (see r/churning). If that’s not available in your country, then cool, get the CDC card!
Lots of places don’t have the coinbase card Canada, Europe etc so no coinbase doesn’t just win everywhere
The earn yield goes up quite a bit tho when you stake
Jade/indigo. I’m getting 6.5%P.A on eth in the cdc earn section. Coinbase offers 4.5%. Pretty big difference.
Your post is a perfect reason why CRO/crypto.com is great.
By your own admission crypto.com comes close to matching all these things, but you can do them all in one convenient place.
My dad might come to me and ask me if I know how to buy, say, 10,000$ of bitcoin. I can convince him to sign up to crypto.com, he’s probably familiar with the name and logo at this point adding a level of comfort. I can tell him if he locks up $4,000 they’ll give him 10% return on that (I dont even mention CRO to simplify things), a debit card that will cover the cost of spotify and Netflix, and he can buy $6000 of bitcoin and get a 6.5% return(like a dividend).
Or… I have to get him to sign up to coinbase to get the coinbase card, sign up to FTX as well to stake bitcoin. And to get him to farm osmo… no chance… yeah dad so you have to download this wallet dont lose this 12 word seed phrase, now you need to split this cro token you bought to equal parts osmo to create a liquidity pair. At that point I lost him, “whats an osmo, whats a liquidity pair? This is too much.” Not to mention id have to get him to harvest and move it back to his wallet, then if he doesn’t want osmo…….. explaining impermanent loss. No chance.
Crypto.com simplifies it in a very convenient way where you are still receiving great rewards all in one place.. there is no better entry in to crypto right now in my opinion. From there if someone chooses they can learn more and branch out in to DeFi, and sign up to multiple CEXs to maximize their returns.
so your solution for something that is all-in-one is to have 20 different solutions on 20 different platforms? doesn’t seem convenient.
edit: hope there aren’t too many malicious comments against op. I thank you all for the upvotes, it’s nice to know I’m not the only one that likes the convenience of cdc. however op is correct about the individual solutions, let’s not lose sight of that. if you’re into that sort of thing, these are all great options! I’d imagine op went thru a decent bit of trouble to bring us this information. on the other hand, shitting on a great platform like CDC wasn’t the right play imho. happy trading y’all.
You take some but you give some.
I enjoy my free Spotify, Netflix, Prime, Lounge, etc.
I earn good rates in kind for ETH, BTC and USDC.
I am fine with the lock up.
Your first point is already invalid since coinbase does not offer cashback in Europe. So a whole lot of people are nothing with their card.
If history tells us anything, then we should be buying CRO after posts like this.
This post has me feeling bullish on CRO
What about the 194 other countries that don’t have the coinbase card?
I already have like 8 crypto apps, I don’t need 10 more to squeeze an extra percent out of my crypto. Convenience is worth money too.
Yeeeeeeah, imma go buy some CRO
Some coins are worth buying and one of them is CRO
I am not an extremist
You can have it or not… BUT
I have it and I know I will make good use of it someday
Added a little more CRO to the bag
You probably would have advised against me buying BNB at $6 in 2017, but on the bright side, I wouldn’t have given a shit about your opinion then either
You’re also ignoring impermanent loss when looking at liquidity pools for APR / APY.
If the value of CRO would balloon across the time you have it staked at 12.5% in Defi for arguments sake, you’d be earning your 12.5% and obtain the gains from price increase.
With liquidity pools, you don’t get that luxury. 60% is far better than 12.5% if you’re talking stablecoin yields, but you’ll be pissed off if the price bloats and you’re stuck with an ever decreasing number of coins that haven’t earned you a great deal by comparison.
The Coinbase card in the uk is a pile of absolute dog shit! 1% back in BTC but every single transaction they rip your arse apart with a 4.5% “ liquidation fee” which completely blows any gain right out the water! Not to mention the crypto purchase fees in the first place. CRO is BY MILES the better platform depending where you are in the world.
‘2.49% cryptocurrency liquidation fee: One of the significant drawbacks of the Coinbase card is the high cryptocurrency liquidation fee. You’ll incur a 2.49% transaction fee for all purchases.’
You should include the facts when spouting opinions.
Lots of good points. I think one of the reasons people like CRO is *because* it forces lots of people to stake high quantities for 6mo periods… meaning no matter what happens there is a lot of CRO that *cannot* be panic sold, thus forcing people to HODL and helping keep the price a bit more stable than lots of other alts… CRO has done me very well… I dont think its gonna be the bitcoin killer, but I think It will probably take a spot in the top 10 and will likely hold that spot for a good while just based on popularity and forced hodl.
CRO is the platform that offers the most staking options for a lot of coins that Coinbase doesn’t have. Nobody wants to be staking in 4-5 different exchanges for a 1-3% change that isn’t going to make a big impact unless you are a whale.
I can’t get the coinbase card.
I have Icy so get Spotify and amazon 100% reimbursed in CRO and get 2% on top of the 6.5% on BTC in Cro.
Fud as soon price is tanking. Il get 12% on my card stake btw.
CRO is a coin backed by of the biggest exchanges just like BNB is backed by Binance and here for the long term whether you like it or not!
Crypto.com is leveraging themselves as a premium brand. They’ve never been the cheapest way to buy crypto. They’re selling a brand and an experience.
People ask if they should get an iPhone or Android, and the number one question should be, “How much do you want an iPhone?” Same thing with BMW, Lululemon, or whatever high end brand.
You’re completely right that there are places with better yield, better customer service, or a better experience overall, but, the question: “How much do people want to use crypto.com” is really what’s going to be answered.
OP forgot there is a world outside the USA…. 🤣🤣🤣
​
>CRO Argument: 3% back on spending with locking up $4,000 worth of CRO for 6 months.
>
>Better Alternative: Coinbase debit card 4% back on spending with $0 lock up. Obviously superior, period, end of discussion.
Wake up OP. The Coinbase Card is useless outside the USA as it offers 0% cashback. Obviously inferior, period, end of discussion.
​
>The exchange itself – Crypto.com trade fees are ATROCIOUS* compared to some alternatives. CDC Exchange isn’t even available to the US yet. US has to use the Crypto.com App, which the fees are even worse.
I’m a Day Trader paying Level 5 fees on the [Crypto.com](https://Crypto.com) Exchange. The fees are **LOWER** than Binance.
​
There goes your argument in 2 seconds, so I won’t waste my time pulling the rest of your misinformation and nonsense apart.
For a lot of people the CRO card is a better deal, not even considering the tokenomics/price action.
4% flat out on Coinbase (XLM only, but you can swap it for an appreciating asset) looks better number to number, but you get $27 dollars worth of CRO per month on the Jade/Indigo card if you sub to Spotify and Netflix, which is the equivalent of an extra $675 spent at 4% rewards. Stake the CRO and start Netflix and Spotify family plans with your friends and family, and it’s a free $250/year.
You say the Coinbase card is better without taking into account the other perks of the crypto.com card, so you’re making an unfair comparison.
Crypto.com also has 100% rebate for Spotify and Netflix as well as perfect exchange rate for international txes, and free ATM withdrawal. Also airport lounge access for 1 person.
This makes the crypto.com card better for most people, but not all.
My counter points:
1) This does somewhat depend on a variety of factors. In a theoretical world, if you automatically sold the rewards as soon as you got them, 4% is better than 3%.
But there are a variety of reasons you may not want to do that (time-consuming, tax reporting requirements, capital gains, etc.). IIRC, you only get 4% on Coinbase on XLM, which is down something like 50% in the past year and not too many bullish catalysts going forward, so if you’re holding onto XLM for any extended period of time, you’re down pretty bad. Meanwhile, CRO is up quite a bit. Real yield is probably much higher for CRO over a 12 month period.
Now, past performance is not indicative of the future. But since Crypto.com is giving their own token, they have more incentive to make CRO valuable in the future. Coinbase, on the other, doesn’t care if your 4% cash back goes down -99%. Coinbase also has less control over reward supply, so the reward amounts or tokens are more susceptible to change.
2) A lot of this isn’t really a great argument. Staking is not the same as LPing, you are subjecting yourself to a whole slew of additional risks. Also, staking rewards for any coin are subject to change – JUNO and OSMO are in highly inflationary periods since they just launched, they will be cut aggressively over the next few months similar to how Bitcoin goes through halvenings.
3) This is true for the most part, although it would be very time consuming to try to open accounts on all these different platforms to maximize your take, whereas if you have the $4000 stake on CDC, you get the best rates in one spot on top of all the other perks.
4) This is true too, fees suck on the app.
5) One thing you didn’t even mention is the Crypto.com blockchain, which has grown substantially in recent months, overtaking some of the fringe L1s like Harmony and Algorand. This will drive more value to CRO should they continue to develop in this space.
Reading through the comments shows OP effectively proving why CDC is a great option
CRO to $20
Getting 60% back by suppyling liquidity to the CRO/OSMO LP pool is not the same thing as getting 10% staking rewards for a 6 month lock-up. Your statement ignores the fact that your alternative requires also having to supply the same amount of OSMO as CRO that you have and completely ignores the concept of [impermanent loss](https://medium.com/coinmonks/understanding-impermanent-loss-9ac6795e5baa), which is a huge risk with supplying liquidoty to almost any LP pool. So supplying CRO and OSMO almost assuredly puts your entire principal at immediate risk of being devalued by, at the very least, a decent amount. I’m not very familiar with OSMO’s price movement but everyone who sees this should be very careful before supplying liquidity to any LP pool.
I’d like to add their marketing blows. All they are doing is slapping their name on everything. There is no story to them, it’s just here we are period. No thought just, crypto.com. They need to die.
Next post: why OP’s recommendations are bad and CRO is the best
Another Pro you forgot. To do all that you go to go to +4 different CED/DEX but with CDC you have all in one app. I don’t trade that much I HODL to keep it simple, so I don’t care about the spread. CDC app is all in one. I love the earn program. I might be a conservative guy, but I just don’t like jumping from app to app to get all that benefits.
I agree with you but whoever simplifies this is going to win. If it’s to hard no one will use it period. Most of the newer users don’t want to have 5 wallets and seed phrases to babysit. They probably don’t even know what a wallet is.