Crypto.com App Review, Usage Tips and Referral Benefits

Company

Buy Bitcoin and 150+ cryptocurrencies with 20+ fiat currencies. Access, manage, and spend your funds anytime with the Crypto.com Visa Card

Founded in 2016.

Investors

Crypto.com has grown without ever taking an outside investment.

“We’ve obviously had a tremendous amount of interest, with some very generous offers, but cash hasn’t been a limiting factor given the amount of revenue the company produces” - source

Key metrics

• 80+ million customers [Mar 2023]
• 1+ million followers on Twitter [Oct 2021]
• 4000+ employees in offices across the Americas, Europe and Asia [May 2022]

Notable developments

• Obtains Major Payment Institution Licence from Monetary Authority of Singapore [Jun 2023]
• Crypto.com Becomes Visa’s Associate Programme Member in Singapore [Nov 2022]
  • allows for self-issuance of the Crypto.com Visa Card in Singapore
  • allows Singapore card holders to use the Crypto.com Visa Card overseas.
• Crypto.com receives in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore for Major Payment Institution License [22 Jun 2022]
• announced reduction of about 260 positions or 5% of corporate workforce [Jun 2022]
• Crypto.com brings Crypto.com Pay to all Shopify merchants [May 2022]
• Announcement of massive nerf-ing of Crypto Visa Card benefits [May 2022]
  • caused major plunge in CRO price
  • backlash prompted Crypto.com to reduce staking rewards for upper tiers rather than eliminating it completely.
• Cyber-security breach of 483 customer accounts [17 Jan 2022]
  • users reported that Ethereum and other cryptocurrencies were wiped from their accounts.
  • Singapore-based Crypto.com CEO Kris Marszalek confirms 483 accounts hacked, says affected customers reimbursed
  • unauthorised withdrawals totalled 4,836.26 ETH, 443.93 BTC and approximately US$66,200 in other currencies. In cash terms, more than $33 million in funds was stolen.
  • post-mortem: Security Report & Next Steps
    • Crypto.com shared findings, announced enhancements to the security infrastructure and introduced the Worldwide Account Protection Program (WAPP).

Presence in Singapore

• Entity: Foris DAX Asia Pte. Ltd. (UEN: 201917495R)
• Location: 1 ‌Raffles‌ Quay #‌09‌-‌06 Sin‌ga‌pore 04‌85‌83

Mr Chin Tah Ang was announced as general manager of Crypto.com’s Singapore office in a press release on 18 August 2022. He most recently headed Digital Industry Singapore, a joint office between three Government agencies - the Economic Development Board (EDB), Enterprise Singapore and Infocomm Media Development Authority.

Regulatory Compliance

Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)

In June 2023, Crypto.com announced that it had received its Major Payment Institution (MPI) licence for Digital Payment Token (DPT) services from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

This license enables Crypto.com to offer a range of payment services within the Payment Services Act, including Digital Payment Token (DPT) services to customers in Singapore.

Other regions

Might not be a complete list:

• Brazil: secures Payment Institution (EMI) License in Brazil [Dec 2022]
• Cyprus: received regulatory approval from the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC) [Jul 2022]
• Dubai: received Virtual Asset Service Provider (VASP) license from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) [Nov 2023]
  • secured full operational approval from Dubai’s VARA, making it the first crypto exchange to be allowed to operate with fiat currency in the UAE [Apr 2024]
• Greece: received registration from the Hellenic Capital Market Commission
• Italy: received registration and regulatory approval from the Organismo Agenti e Mediatori (OAM) in Italy as a provider of virtual currency and digital wallet services [Jul 2022]
• South Korea: secured Electronic Financial Transaction Act and Virtual Asset Service Provider registration
  • by acquiring payment service provider ‘PnLink Co., Ltd.’ and virtual asset service provider ‘OK-BIT Co., Ltd.’.
• UK: registration approval as Cryptoasset Business from UK Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) [Aug 2022]

Travel Rule

Crypto.‌com announced in February 2022 that it will be introducing several measures in 2022 to comply with the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s incorporation of the Financial Action Task Force Value Transfer Requirements (‘Travel Rule’) under the Payment Services Act (Notice PSN02). See FAQ.

In the first phase, Crypto.‌com users are required to provide additional information for the following transactions:

• Outgoing digital token transfers

  • You must provide the name of the beneficiary party, whether the transfer is going to a private wallet or a cryptocurrency exchange, and other supplementary information.

• Incoming digital token transfers

  • You should share additional details about your incoming transfers for the protection of your account, including the name of the originating party and whether the transfer is from a private wallet or a cryptocurrency exchange.

  • The beneficiary/originating party information will be assigned to the respective digital wallet address. You will not be required to furnish the beneficiary/originating party’s information for subsequent transfers to or from the assigned digital wallet address.

Social media

• Crypto.com Singapore Community 🇸🇬 :
  • Facebook: Strongly recommended to join this group as the admins and ambassadors are very helpful in answering questions related to the Singapore market.
  • Telegram

Transparency

Cold wallet addresses for some of the largest assets published by Crypto.com in an article ‘Transparency First’ released on 11 November 2022. The company is also expected to release an audited Proof of Reserves soon, confirming full 1:1 reserve of all customer assets.

BTC:

• bc1qpy4jwethqenp4r7hqls660wy8287vw0my32lmy
• 3LhhDLBVWBZChNQv8Dn4nDKFnCyojG1FqN
• 3QsGsAXQ4rqRNvh5pEW55hf3F9PEyb7rVq
• bc1qr4dl5wa7kl8yu792dceg9z5knl2gkn220lk7a9
• bc1q4c8n5t00jmj8temxdgcc3t32nkg2wjwz24lywv
• 14m3sd9HCCFJW4LymahJCKMabAxTK4DAqW

ETH, ERC20, and more:

• 0x72A53cDBBcc1b9efa39c834A540550e23463AAcB
• 0x7758e507850da48cd47df1fb5f875c23e3340c50
• 0xcffad3200574698b78f32232aa9d63eabd290703
• 0x6262998Ced04146fA42253a5C0AF90CA02dfd2A3

Ecosystem

Access to platform

Crypto.com App is not accessible via web browsers. Only the following mobile platform apps are supported:

• Android
  • The ‘Crypto.com App’ meant for this platform has a blue logo.
  • The ‘Crypto.com Exchange App’ meant for the Crypto.com Exchange platform has a black logo.
• iOS

Cronos (CRO) Coin

Cronos (formerly Crypto.com) Coin

Crypto Earn

Crypto Earn is similar to savings account, which allows users to stake their crypto and earn interest. It also allows users flexibility in the way they would like to save. Interest is paid weekly.

There are 3 different holding terms to choose from:

• Flexible
• 1-Month
• 3-Months

The Crypto Earn service is not available for citizens and residents of Hong Kong SAR, Switzerland, or Malta.

Crypto.com NFT

Available in Crypto.com App since March 2022, but only in selected countries. As of 13 April 2022, Singapore is not in the list of countries where this feature is available.

Crypto.com Pay

Crypto.com Pay is a mobile payment service that lets users pay in and/or receive cryptocurrency anywhere, anytime for free.

When using various functions under the Crypto.com Pay feature in the Crypto.com mobile app, users are entitled to receive cashback in CRO. These CRO cashbacks are branded as Pay Rewards.

Pay Checkout

With supported merchants, Crypto.com Pay allows you to spend your crypto online and even earn up to 10% cashback in CRO.

Some merchants that offer 10% cashback in CRO include:

• Ledger: Protects your crypto assets with the highest security standards
• Unstoppable Domains: Purchase an easy-to-remember crypto address and create an uncensorable website

Pay Gift Card

Within the Crypto.com App itself, you can purchase gifts cards to use at popular merchants and earn cashback in CRO.

Pay Mobile Airtime

Mobile Airtime is a feature that enables Crypto.com App users to top up a prepaid phone number anywhere with Pay in the following cryptocurrencies:

• CRO, BTC, ETH, XRP & LTC.

M1, Singtel, and Starhub prepaid services are supported.

Earn up to 5% cashback in CRO with each purchase of the Mobile Airtime. Terms and Conditions apply.

Pay Your Friends

Pay Your Friends allows users to pay back their friends in crypto and earn rewards by doing so. Users can pay their friends in any cryptocurrency for free.

Users can earn up to 10% cashback per transaction with requirement by paying their friends in CRO tokens.

Crypto.‌com Price

Utilise Crypto.‌com Price to find market cap rankings, price charts, upcoming NFT collections, and other information that can help you make informed decisions about your crypto holdings. You can sign in with your Crypto.‌com App account.

Another useful feature is Showroom where users can check out the day’s most relevant tokens and coins.

Crypto.com Signals

Introduced in February 2024, Signals is a tool that provides users with all the latest updates about notable on-chain activity, detailed token price changes, and even when large-volume trades are taking place.

With Signals, users have 24/7 access to up-to-date information from various sources aggregated within the App. Some of these notifications include:

• Cryptocurrency inflows/outflows across the top exchanges
• Large-volume trades taking place
• The overall transactions for a particular token
• Overbought or oversold tokens
• Token price surges or dips
• Noticeable increases in the number of holders for a specific coin

Crypto.com Visa Card

The Crypto.com Visa Card allows users to:

• Transact without annual fees at 50+ millions VISA merchant locations worldwide;
• Enjoy instant top-up and payment completion without waiting time;
• Spend overseas at interbank exchange rates without markups;
  • For Midnight Blue, Ruby Steel, Royal Indigo and Jade Green cardholders, a foreign transaction fee of only 0.5% will apply for all purchases and ATM withdrawals that are not denominated in SGD, AUD, EUR, GBP, HKD, JPY, or USD.
  • Private Members with an Obsidian, Icy White or Frosted Rose Gold card will enjoy zero foreign transaction fees on purchases and ATM withdrawals
• Benefit from amazing perks associated with the card.

The Visa Card could be managed via the Crypto.com App. In the app, users could complete card application, view card details, track card spending records, receive eligible card rewards, etc.

When users make a purchase with their Crypto.con Visa Card, the cashback they earn will always be allocated to them in the form of CRO Tokens and credited instantly.

Starting from September 2023, users with a Singapore-issued Crypto.com Visa Card can now make payments with Google Pay.

Relevant blog: Crypto.com Visa Card Usage Experience

Missions

This new Crypto‌.com App feature allows you to earn prizes simply by logging in and trading crypto! Complete ‘Missions’ like buying or selling USD 20 of crypto in a single transaction to earn Diamonds. Get 25 Diamonds and you can buy a Mystery Box which contains a surprise CRO prize!

Supercharger

The Supercharger is a simple, secure, and flexible liquidity mining platform, where users deposit CRO to mine the hottest DeFi tokens.

There is a minimum deposit of 100 CRO to take part in the Supercharger. The Supercharger for both Crypto.com App and Exchange goes to the same liquidity pool.

University

Launched in November 2022, University is a one-stop learning hub on the Crypto.com App to enhance your crypto learning experience. In University, users can access a range of insightful articles in the Crypto.com App, test their understanding with quizzes, and even get rewarded for each course passed.

For full details, visit the website.

✔️ Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Funds Protection

100% of user cryptocurrencies are held offline in cold storage

Crypto.com has a strategic partnership with Ledger, integrating its institutional-grade custody solution, Ledger Vault. They also leverage hardware security modules (HSM) and multi-signature technologies.

All funds held in hot wallets are corporate funds. They are primarily used to ensure smooth day-to-day withdrawal requests from customers.

Insurance against losses

Crypto.com has secured a total of USD 750M in cold storage insurance against physical damage or destruction, and third-party theft.

Worldwide Account Protection Program (WAPP)

Introduced in the aftermath of the hacking incident in January 2022 and rolling out from February 2022 in select markets, WAPP offers additional protection and security for user funds held in the Crypto.com App and the Crypto.com Exchange. The protection program was rolled out in Singapore in early March 2022.

Note that the protection program does not cover the Crypto.com Pay and the Crypto.com Visa Card.

It is designed to protect user funds in cases where a third party gains unauthorized access to their account and withdraws funds without the user’s permission. WAPP restores funds up to USD$250,000 for qualified users; terms & conditions apply.

To qualify for the WAPP program, users must:

1. Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) on all transaction types where MFA is currently available,
2. Set up an anti-phishing code at least 21 days prior to the reported unauthorized transaction,
3. Not be using jailbroken devices,
4. File a police report and provide a copy of it to Crypto.com; and
5. Complete a questionnaire to support a forensic investigation.

Privacy and Security

SOC 2 Compliance

First cryptocurrency platform to achieve this demonstrates company’s ongoing dedication to security and data privacy

Crypto.com announced on 22 Nov 2021 that it has successfully completed the Service Organization Control (SOC) 2 Audit, conducted by globally recognized audit and consulting firm Deloitte, which affirms that Crypto.com’s information security practices, policies, procedures, and operations meet the SOC 2 standards for security, availability, confidentiality and privacy.

Singapore’s Data Protection Trust Mark

Crypto.com is the first FinTech company to achieve the coveted Data Protection Trust Mark (DPTM) awarded by Singapore’s Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA).

IMDA, a statutory board under the Ministry of Communications and Information, has awarded less than 70 DPTM’s to organizations in Singapore of any kind.

Crypto.com’s Singapore-based customers can be assured that Crypto.com has put in place responsible data protection practices for their personal data, aligned with Singapore’s Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA), incorporating elements of international benchmarks and best practices.

ISO 27017 and ISO 27018 Security and Privacy Certifications

In January 2023, Crypto.com became the first virtual asset platform to achieve ISO 27017 and ISO 27018 Security and Privacy Certifications. This is in addition to existing ISO 27001, ISO 27701 and ISO 22301 certifications.

ISO 27017 for security in the cloud, and ISO 27018 for privacy protection in the cloud. Crypto.com was audited by SGS, an internationally-recognized certification authority.

New User Incentive - First 30 days fee waiver

New App users from eligible markets (Singapore included) will be able to purchase crypto with their credit/debit card without any fees for 30 days.

Announced on 27 January 2022: For Crypto‌.com App users in Singapore, credit and debit card crypto purchases will be processed locally and card issuers will no longer charge international transaction fees.

Sign up conveniently with SingPass MyInfo

Singapore residents can now enjoy a faster and simpler sign-up process for the Crypto.com App via Myinfo with Singpass. They can retrieve data from Myinfo by logging in with their Singpass, use it to complete the verification process with a few taps, and the account review process is fast-tracked. It is fast, easy, and secure.

Usage Notes and Tips

Crypto.com Visa Card related

Avoiding top-up fees

A user feedback in the Crypto.com Facebook community page that he was charged 2.8% when he used a debit card to top up the Crypto.com Visa Card. He contacted DBS and was informed that DCC fees were being charged, as the transaction was being processed overseas because the Crypto.com Visa Card is issued in France.

Suggested ways to avoid this charge was to use multi-currency debit cards issued by:

• BigPay
• Revolut
• Singlife
• Wise

Card reissue fees for upgrading Crypto.com Visa Card

Many new users prefer to start off with the FREE “Midnight Blue” tier Crypto.com Visa Card. Do note that for Singapore users, there is a card reissue fee of S$50 should you decide to stake CRO and upgrade to a metal card.

Refer to this Crypto.com article for steps to upgrade your Crypto.com Visa Card.

CRO cashback exclusions

Some merchants and MCC codes are excluded from the CRO rewards program.

Lounge Access changed to Priority Pass

As of 31 May 2023, the airport lounge access benefit for the Crypto.com Visa Card has been changed from LoungeKey™ to the Priority Pass™ programme.

With Priority Pass™, you will have access to over 1,300 lounges worldwide and over 80 in-airport experiences. Priority Pass™ members can also enjoy a host of other benefits, including preferential pricing on car rentals and airport transfers.

What happens if CRO price falls after staking, and staked value goes below card tier requirements?

For example:

1. A user stakes $500 worth of CRO and applies for the Ruby Steel card
2. Subsequently, the price of CRO drops and the stake value falls below $500

The user will still enjoy the benefits of the tier, and there is no need to top up CRO to bring staked value to $500 again.

What is the name printed on the card?

Your full name will be printed on the card. This is important especially for cards with lounge access where they have to verify your identity.

Supercharger

Accept allocation rewards or they will be forfeited

After each Supercharger event is completed and the rewards allocation are calculated, users must accept the allocation to receive the rewards or they will get forfeited.

Steps:

1. Log in to your Crypto.com App account.
2. Go to Accounts > Supercharger.
3. Review the information and accept your final reward allocation.
4. Once accepted, your final allocation will be distributed over the Reward Period, not all at one go.

Others

FAST network support for SGD Fiat Wallets

From 19 Apr 2022, Crypto.com App users in Singapore can now enjoy zero-fee deposits and withdrawals using FAST (Fast and Secure Transactions). With a simple setup process, FAST gives users a quick and secure way to fund their account for crypto purchases.

In addition, users can enjoy a higher deposit and withdrawal limit of SGD 200,000 per transaction. Crypto.com does not charge any fees. However, fees may be applied by users’ bank and/or their intermediary banks, and any such fees shall be borne by users entirely.

See setup instructions in official announcement by Crypto.com.

Use Crypto.com Pay to buy gift cards at merchants to get more value for your money

Gift cards from many big brands and online shopping platforms are available in Crypto.com Pay. I created a video to show how to navigate the Crypto.com App to reach the feature to purchase gift cards, as well as showcase some of the merchants.