Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s Crypto.com All About?

Blockchain and cryptocurrency are two emerging techs that can no longer be ignored. By enabling trustless, immutable, and decentralized financial solutions, blockchain is laying the foundation for a new generation of better and inclusive financial applications. 

Crypto.com is an effort to push the world’s adoption of cryptocurrency. The platform has a motto: “put currency in every wallet.” Its main offering and what majorly contributes to this effort is its Monaco (MCO) visa card. Through the Visa card, Crypto.com hopes to solve the issue of traditional systems not accepting payment in crypto. And those that do, they do so through slow and often expensive processes which bar many people from using cryptocurrency.

Crypto.com hopes to solve this by offering “the best way to pay and be paid in crypto, anywhere, any crypto, for free.” 

What’s Crypto.com?

Crypto.com is a cryptocurrency and payment platform whose goal is to advance the worldwide adoption of crypto. Founded in 2016, the platform houses a range of products – from an exchange to crypto Visa cards, to a wallet and a crypto investment platform. 

According to the team, “We strongly believe that decentralization is an important part of a better society for everyone, and by accelerating the world transition to cryptocurrency we are helping the world move in this direction. We will achieve this by building on one side, a network of cryptocurrency projects, and on the other side, focus on developing merchants’ ability to accept crypto as a form of payment.”

Crypto.com’s Go-to-Market Strategy

Crypto.com has a clear vision of how it wants to accomplish this. It has four “disruptive forces” to this end: 

  • Great offers for users to incentivize the usage of cryptocurrency
  • Zero transaction fees for merchants
  • A seamless experience for users
  • A decentralized and trustless protocol to process transactions

What Does Crypto.com Offer?

Why should you care about Crypto.com? Well, that’s because it offers several great financial benefits for users. Signing up for Crypto.com gives you access to the following features: 

  • MCO Visa card through which you can spend crypto anywhere in the world
  • Crypto.com app that allows you to buy, exchange, send and track crypto
  • Crypto Credit feature that enables you spent money on credit through your MCO Visa card
  • Crypto Earn that allows you to earn up to 20% interest by depositing crypto
  • Crypto.com Exchange, a crypto exchange that has deep liquidity, competitive fees, and favorable execution prices

Crypto.com’s Native Tokens: MCO and CEO

The Crypto.com ecosystem utilizes a dual-token system. The tokens in question are MCO and CEO.

The MCO Token

The MCO token plays the following roles in the ecosystem: 

  • Allows users to own visa cards by staking in the tokens
  • Allows users to get cashbacks (depending on the card tier) on spending
  • Allows users to earn extra rewards like Netflix, Spotify, and Amazon Prime and other benefits when they stake more tokens
  • Receive MCO at 6% p.a. for 500 and 8% p.a. for 5,000 and 50,000 amount in stake, respectively

The CRO Token  

The CRO token has the following utilities:

  • Facilitate cross-assets currency settlements on Crypto.com
  • Reward nodes for validating and processing transactions
  • As payment for transacting in CRO
  • As a 50% discount to users when they purchase crypto on the crypto.com exchange
  • Get users to access to Crypto.com’s Syndicate platform

Crypto.com Exchange

Crypto.com has an in-house exchange that was launched in November 2019. Let’s look at some of the features of the exchange:

  • The Vortex Liquidity System that allows users access to a global trading platform
  • A 100% trading fee discount depending on your trading volume for the last 30 days and the amount of staked CRO
  • 0% trading fee for the first 90 days
  • Earn up to 20% interest just by depositing crypto
  • A Matching Engine in an Order Management System that provides a fast and efficient trading environment
  • Intuitive and interactive environment powered by a unified REST and Websocket API

Crypto.com Fees

Crypto.com charges a maker and taker fee starting at 0.2% and a transparent, competitive fee structure. However, staking CRO tokens grants you cheaper fees a 20% ROI on the staked amount. 

Crypto.com’s MCO Visa cards

Crypto.com provides five tiers of Visa cards that you can choose depending on your budget and needs. Let’s go through each of them:

Midnight Blue: This card is beginner level. With the Midnight’ Blue card, you get 1% cashback. There is a withdrawal limit of $200, a withdrawal fee of 2%, and an interbank fee of 0.5%. You don’t need to own MCO tokens to own Midnight Blue.

Ruby Steel: With this card, you get a 2% cashback when you stake 50 MCO tokens and a 1% cashback when you don’t. Also, when you stake, you get a $4,000 interbank exchange rate limit and no limits on ATM withdrawal. 

Jade Green/Royal Indigo: This tier is unlocked by staking 500 MCO tokens. With either of these cards, you get a 3% cashback, and if you don’t stake an MCO, you get a 1.5% cashback. 

Icy White: When you stake 5,000 MCO tokens, you get a 4% cashback and stand a chance to earn bonus interest. This level has a $20,000 interbank exchange rate limit of $20,000 and an ATM withdrawal limit of $1,000. No-staking gains you a 1.75% cashback. 

Obsidian Black: This is the highest level available. Staking 50,000 MCO grants you 5% cashback and unlimited interbank exchange rates, and an ATM withdrawal limit of $1,000. Not staking gives you a 2% cashback. 

Depending on the tier, there are also various benefits ranging from free access to Netflix, Spotify, Amazon Prime, airport lounge access, an exclusive merchandise welcome pack, and rebates on Airbnb and Expedia.

Tokenomics of Crypto.com

Now, let’s check in on how Crypto.com stacks up in the market. As of July 29, 2020, the cryptocurrency was the 9th largest in the world, with a market cap of 2.95 billion. Its 24-hour volume was $115, 652, 263, and it had a circulating supply of 18, 466, 210, 046, and a total supply of 100 billion. Crypto.com’s highest ever price was $0.168761, while its lowest ever was $0.011487 (Dec 17, 2018). 

Buying and Storing Crypto.com

You can purchase Crypto.com from several exchanges, including OKEx, Huobi Global, HitBTC, Bittrex, BitMart, DigiFinex, BitHumb, Gate.io, CoinDCX, Sistemcoin, CoinTiger, and KuCoin.

Crypto.com has provided its own wallet, the Crypto.com Wallet, which is “designed to give you full control and secured custody of your crypto.” If you’re using user-custodied wallets such as Ledger and MyEtherWallet, you can migrate your existing wallet to the Crypto.com wallet using a 12/2824 recovery phrase. Following the import, you can continue managing your crypto using the Crypto.com Wallet.

Closing Thoughts

In its small way, Crypto.com is doing its part in promoting the wide-scale use of crypto. With the MCO Visa card, say goodbye to not being able to spend crypto your funds. And the bonus is if you stake in the MCO token, you unlock loads of possibilities with what you can do with the card. Multiply your crypto holdings just by putting it to work for you. Build an investment portfolio without breaking a sweat. Get lots of benefits by using the native exchange platform. No matter your needs, there’s something for everyone on Crypto.com!

Categories
Cryptocurrencies

What’s Monaco, and what can you do with it?

One of the things that have held back the widespread adoption of crypto is its wild volatility that makes many businesses and merchants shy of accepting it for payment. This is because the value of a cryptocurrency can be wiped away overnight, leaving the holder in losses. 

What if there was a way that crypto holders could make purchases and merchants accepted it, with a win-win for everyone? 

Monaco is a payments platform that does precisely this – granting individuals the ability to spend crypto to buy coffee, groceries, anywhere in the world, with very minimal fees. 

The platform is operated by a  Switzerland-headquartered financial services company Crypto.com, with offices in Singapore and Hong Kong.

What’s Monaco, and what can you do with it?

Understanding Monaco

Monaco is a payment and crypto platform that allows users to hold a Visa-branded debit card that is based on cryptocurrencies of your choice. Being a Visa card, you can use it like you would any other card. The Monaco platform also features a mobile wallet app through which users can buy, exchange, and spend both Fiat and crypto. 

Monaco is the former name of a financial services firm Crypto.com. The company rebranded so as to better reflect its mission and brand as a cryptocurrency powerhouse. 

Announcing the rebrand, co-founder and CEO Kris Marszalek said: “CRYPTO.com gives us a powerful new identity in line with our original vision to put cryptocurrency in every wallet. As the name we are taking on is also representative of the entire space, it comes with a huge responsibility to carry the torch. We will strive to deliver impact worthy of the name and build infrastructure that enables the growth of the ecosystem, delivering on the promise of a decentralized future.” 

The CRYPTO.com platform now features two cryptocurrencies: Monaco (MCO) token, and Crypto.com. MCO is targeted at the platform’s end users, who also get lower transaction rates for staking the token. Crypto.com is the newer of the two and is intended as a medium for payments and settlement on the platform’s blockchain. 

A Visa Card Based on Crypto

The idea behind Monaco is to make it easy to transact with cryptocurrency. If more people can use it for everyday purchases like coffee, groceries, and meals, it sets the stage for the currency’s adoption on a mainstream level. As such, Monaco aims to promote the usefulness of cryptocurrency and, in the process, its wide-scale acceptance. 

Monaco does this by integrating a mobile app and a Visa-branded card. To sign up, you need to deposit crypto into the Monaco account, after which you can now spend crypto using the card. The conversion process when you’re purchasing things is taken care of by Monaco. 

Also, you, as a user, are not charged anything by Monaco. Instead, the company makes money by charging the merchant. It takes around 1.5-2% on every transaction. The fact that Monaco makes money when customers use the card is an incentive to provide a user-friendly and high-level experience. 

Cross-border and Feeless Transactions

As crypto-backed cards, Monaco cards are not limited by geographical borders Fiat currencies. This means you can use a Monaco card anywhere in the globe. Like mentioned earlier, Monaco automatically converts the crypto into the local currency when you buy a service/product.

As you can see, the Monaco card might be attractive to two types of customers. One is a crypto holder who would like to spend their crypto funds easily without the long process of converting it to Fiat. The other ideal customer would be the international traveler who might need to buy things anywhere with any of various currencies.

Cashback

As with the occasional reward scheme with a standard debit card, Monaco also runs a cashback program of up to 2% of cryptocurrency spending. For international travelers, the card offers interbank exchange rates with minimal or no fees at all. And this is with updated real-time exchange rates.

According to Monaco, diesel rates save users up to 5 to 8% of fees compared with traditional banks. 

Monaco Wallet 

In keeping with their slogan “Cryptocurrency in every wallet,” Monaco also offers a multi-currency wallet app that allows you to buy, hold, send, exchange, and receive multiple cryptos, from the MCO token itself to Bitcoin, Ethereum, Binance Coin and many more. 

Using the wallet, you can purchase or deposit the minimum MCO tokens needed to begin the six months staking duration to receive a Monaco card. Also, on the wallet, you can track over 200 cryptocurrencies in terms of price, volume, market cap, and so on. 

The wallet also supports a cryptocurrency education section with videos and the relevant crypto trading glossary terms that you can access while on the go.

According to Marszalek, the wallet is meant to “introduce cryptocurrency to the spending practices of the everyday consumer. The app enables users to focus on making the best financial decisions for them rather than endlessly studying the confusing mechanics that frequently accompany cryptocurrency products and exchanges.” 

Tokenomics of MCO

As of June 14, 2020, MCO is trading at $5.12, with a #75 market rank. It has a market cap of $80, 866, 691, a 24-hour volume of $13, 936, 093, a circulating supply of 15, 793, 831, a total supply of 31, 587, 682. The token has an all-time high of $27.10 (Aug 29, 2017), and an all-time low of $0. 641730, (July 16, 2017). 

Purchasing and Storing MCO

MCO is supported by several exchanges, including Binance, Bittrex, BitHumb, Huobi, UpBit, OKEx, BitRabbit, HitBTC, Gate.io, and Bitrue.

To purchase the currency on the majority of the exchanges, you’ll need to first buy a proxy token such as BTC, ETH, USDT. 

MCO is based on Ethereum, so you can store it in any Ethereum-compatible wallet. Great choices include MyEtherWallet, Parity, Mist, MetaMask, and Trust Wallet. For extra security, consider hardware wallets such as Ledger Nano S or Trezor. 

Final Thoughts

For cryptocurrency holders/investors, Monaco card is a great way to spend crypto in the real world without going through lengthy conversion procedures or paying high transaction fees. Being a VISA card, you can use the card anywhere in the globe, with Monaco instantly converting the crypto to the local currency. Also, Monaco cardholders can follow the pulse of the crypto market and stay up to date on relevant market moves. The Monaco platform is paving the way for people to interact with crypto in a whole new way.