I recently did a little write-up for my mom, who wanted to explain it to a friend of hers. Give it a read, see if it helps you. It's done in the context of someone who wanted to get a card and then maybe stake some money into Earn.
Crypto.com
They have an App and a Website. Everything below is done in the app. The website has information, and later this year will add an Exchange (lower fees, limit orders).
This is an established company. They have many large sponsorship deals, including the Philadelphia 76ers NBA team, Formula 1 Racing, Premier League Soccer, and the UFC.
They have a tiered system based on their pre-paid debit cards. Obtaining a card is based on committing $XXX for 180 days. The tiers and their rewards are listed below:
Blue is totally free and makes 1% cash back.
Ruby Red you can open for committing $400. This gives 2% cash back. You also get FREE Spotify Premium, which is usually $8 a month.
Jade Green you can open for committing $4000 for 180 days and you earn 3% cash back and FREE Spotify and Netflix. You earn 10% APR interest, paid weekly, on that $4000. You also get FREE Spotify Premium, Netflix and FREE Lounge Key access at airports. This card also gives better rates on the Earn Program which I’ll go over further down.
Rose Gold you can open for committing $40,000 for 180 days and you earn 5% cash back and 12% APR interest on the $40,000, paid weekly. FREE Spotify, Netflix and Amazon Prime. FREE Lounge Key access at airports. Increased Earn rates with bonus 2%.
The Commitment: Crypto.com has their own token (CRO) which is the backbone that runs their system. In order to get a card you buy CRO. (e.g. if CRO is $0.20 per token and you want to get the Jade Green $4000 card, you would need to buy $4000 / $0.20 = 20,000 CRO and stake that amount.) Buying CRO (and other crypto) can be done in the app.
Stake is the term used for locking up your money for a set amount of time.
Stake the amount of the card for 180 days. The lock in gets you perks. This isn’t like an annual fee, you still own that CRO you staked.
After 180 days the CRO will “unlock” but still be committed for the card. Leave it committed to keep receiving all the card benefits. You can unstake and sell the CRO but would lose all card benefits and drop to 1% cashback, but you can always restake for another 180 days to instantly get the benefits back. If CRO values go down during your stake you still get the perks.
The FREE services (Spotify, Netflix, Prime) perks that you got with the cards above, you actually pay for with your crypto card and that is reimbursed to your Crypto Wallet in CRO.
The 10% APR (Jade card) or 12% APR (Gold card) is paid weekly to your Crypto Wallet in CRO.
The cash back in CRO is paid immediately as purchases are made.
This is a pre-paid debit card. There are a number of ways to fund your card. In the app there will be a “Fiat Wallet” which is where you can deposit USD and is FDIC Insured. It is tied to a
Routing Number and Account Number to the Metropolitan Bank of NY. The best way to get money on your Debit Card is to make an ACH transfer from your bank account to fund the Fiat Wallet, then “Top Up” your debit card from there. (Other ways to add funds would be a credit card / debit card, or selling crypto.)
EARN PROGRAM
You can take additional funds in crypto and can stake them for 3 months, 1 month, or flexible (meaning you can cancel at any time) terms. You can think of these as like savings account or a CD. There are different rates for lower level (Blue / Red) and higher level (Jade / Gold). Different Crypto Tokens have different interest rates. Example for Bitcoin rates:
Blue / Red, you get 4.5% APR for 3 months, 3% APR for 1 month and 1.5% APR for flexible.
Green / Gold, you get 6.5% APR for 3 months, 4.5% APR for 1 month and 2% APR for flexible.
Interest is paid weekly, deposited to your Crypto Wallet, and is paid in kind. If you deposit Bitcoin you will receive Bitcoin as interest.
(e.g. You have a Jade Green card and deposit 0.1 bitcoin into a 3-month earn term @ 6.5% APR. This is a weekly rate of 6.5% / 365 * 7 = 0.1246%. So every week during that 3-month term you would receive 0.0001246 bitcoin into your Crypto Wallet. After 3 months your 0.1 bitcoin principal is unlocked and deposited into your Crypto Wallet.)
Gold tier gives you an additional 2% APR paid in CRO on 1-month and 3-month terms.
Stable Coins: Stable coins have a value pegged to the dollar, so it doesn’t vary like BTC or other crypto. USDC is a Stable Coin which can be bought on the CDC Platform with no fees. USDC also has very good rates in the Earn program. For Jade Green tier you get 12% APR for 3 months, 10% APR for 1 month and 8% APR for flexible. Again, paid in-kind, so you would be earning interest in USDC. (Gold tier would get 12% in USDC with another 2% bonus paid in CRO).