Is Cronos (CRO) Here to Stay?

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Contributor, Benzinga
May 31, 2022

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Crypto.com has been named one of the most rapidly expanding cryptocurrency marketplaces globally, in part because of a commercial initiative spearheaded by Matt Damon and by its substantial rewards program.

The company has a tiered card system, starting with the complimentary Midnight Blue card, and going up to the Obsidian card that requires staking $400,000 in CRO for a minimum of 180 days.

Cronos is a coin linked to Crypto.com, which is a centralized company; therefor, CRO should be evaluated contingent upon the longevity of centralized exchanges and how Crypto.com fares among the competition. 

This article explores the evidence substantiating Crypto.com’s CRO. 

Is Cronos (CRO) Here to Stay, or Just a Fad?

CRO’s longevity is nearly entirely dependent on the success of Crypto.com as an exchange. 

The Crypto.com card cashback incentives of 0%, 1%, 2%, 3% and 5% are granted to different tiers of debit cards based on how much CRO token is staked. If the initial CRO is not restaked, the cashback incentives decrease substantially. 

Among the 5% cashback incentives offered to Obsidian creditors are repayments on premium services from Spotify, Amazon Prime and Netflix, with the greatest staking return on Crypto.com’s exchange.

CoinMarketCap outlines five clear distributions of currency for the network:

  • 30% — Secondary distribution and launch incentives - released in batches on a daily basis over five years from November 14, 2018
  • 20% — Capital reserve - frozen until Nov, 7, 2022
  • 20% — Network long-term Incentives - frozen until Nov. 7, 2022
  • 20% — Ecosystem grants - frozen until the launch of Crypto.com chain mainnet
  • 10% — Community development

Cronos (CRO) History

Crypto.com was founded in 2016 and held an initial coin offering (ICO) in 2017 to debut its now-defunct MCO cryptocurrency. Crypto.com now looks to have a larger purpose of boosting Bitcoin’s acceptance. The company is concentrating on making Bitcoin payments possible all around the world.

CRO officially launched in December of 2018 with an airdrop via the smartphone app. The airdrop ran six months before being frozen for another year. With the advent of the crypto.com exchange, CRO became more accessible to the general population. CRO holders were immediately eligible to stake their coins at a 20% annual percentage yield on the platform. 

Crypto.com has added various rewards for purchasing, staking and using CRO since the exchange started operating in 2020. The benefits vary from participation in their events to transactional savings.

Crypto.org decided to rename the coin Cronos in 2022 over its preliminary name of “Crypto.com Coin.”

Pros and Cons of Cronos (CRO)

Pros:

  • Active network with decentralized applications (DApps)
  • High-yield liquidity pools
  • Excellent associated cards
  • Access to high, risk-free staking rates on stablecoins

Cons:

  • High initial staking requirements
  • Questionable sustainability

Pros and Cons of Crypto.com

Pros: 

  • Visa card with the best rewards
  • Wide variety of cryptos with low rates
  • In-app earning interest features and swapping

Cons: 

  • Poor customer service and user interface
  • Rewards tiers hard to navigate for interest rates and card

Cronos (CRO) Competition

Cronos has strong competition. The most closely related coins are FTX’s FTT token and Binance’s BNB. 

CRO has a market capitalization of $5 billion, and FTX’s FTT token has a market capitalization of around $4 billion relative to Binance coin’s (BNB) $50 billion. 

In comparison to FTT, BNB offers a lot more functionality. It also has additional application instances, which gives it an advantage when it comes to recruiting new investors. Even though it was released before the FTT token, the expertise behind it makes it more attractive. It has an ecosystem that provides it with more anchored usability that has a significant impact on tokenomics.

FTT is at a similar stage to CRO in terms of adoption; the coin that will fare best long term will have the best exchange and utility behind it. If your favorite exchange is FTX, owning FTT offers some decent rewards. 

It all comes down to which exchange can deliver the most with its respective coin; realistically, they could all perform well, as the space is ripe for adoption. 

How to Make Money With Cronos (CRO)

You can tap into three ways to make money with Cronos: Crypto.com’s Crypto Earn feature, debit card rewards and DApp liquidity pools. 

In-app staking is low yield and offers access to Crypto.com’s Crypto Earn product, which is good for people less accustomed to decentralized finance (DeFi). It offers an intuitive way of earning interest on stablecoins and a variety of other cryptocurrencies. For example, you could earn up to 8% on USDC, relying on Crypto.com’s $750 million in insurance on the off chance of a hack. 

Debit card rewards can work well if you have cash aside to invest in CRO. The $5,000 tier gives you free Spotify and Netflix. However, wanting to make your initial investment back in its entirety would be the wrong mindset for this card. Think of it as an investment into CRO that you would have otherwise made, regardless of owning the card or not.

With the debit card, you’d be able to use the Earn product and have your money sitting in a checking account earning interest. The card must be loaded with fiat money, not coins that are locked into the Earn product. In other words, cash from staked $10,000 in the Earn product cannot be used toward payments until after the stake ends.

DApp liquidity pools can be found on CronaSwap and the Crodex app, which are active DApps in the Cronos ecosystem. If you have experience with DeFi, these tools can work well for you, otherwise, in-app resources are the way to go, as they’re more simple to use. 

How to Buy Cronos (CRO)

Cronos should most be obtained through Crypto.com. It offers promotional incentives and a many resources for using the coin. 

So, is Cronos (CRO) Here to Stay?

It seems that Cronos is here to stay. CRO has a flourishing ecosystem that includes the Crypto.com debit card. Crypto.com has cemented itself as a top exchange with no hint that it will abandon CRO. Crypto.com will likely stand the test of time, and so will its associated coin. The card program is still thriving, meaning that there is interest from the public and someone, somewhere, is making money from staking through this program. However, you should carefully watch this program as it may—at some point—need to adjust to a faltering crypto market, one that is recovering from the depegging of Terra.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q

Is investing in CRO profitable?

A

You can make money by investing in CRO, but you must monitor your investments carefully and determine the best time to enter and exit your position.

Q

Is CRO safe?

A

Investing in any asset (like crypto) has inherent risks, but you can protect yourself by using a secure wallet and only spending money you can afford to lose.

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Jack Fineman

About Jack Fineman

Jack Fineman is an undergraduate student studying economics at UCSB, President of the Blockchain at UCSB club and starting player for UCSB in the Collegiate Chess League. Jack primarily works on project creation and managerial work for his club and produces Web3 content for Benzinga. Jack is highly passionate about DeFi and blockchain technology, one of his favorite projects is The Helium Network.