If you have been looking at crypto at all over the last few years, chances are that you will have heard of Crypto.com. With over 10 million users across 90 countries, they are becoming a very well-established crypto exchange and charge you the true cost of the cryptocurrency without additional fees like other exchanges.

After months of “umm-ing and ahh-ing,” I decided to open a crypto.com account in January primarily to take advantage of their Ruby Steel card offer.

What is it?

Crypto.com offers a number of different rewards cards when you stake a certain amount of their native crypto token “CRO”.

These range from Midnight Blue where you don’t need to stake anything, all the way up to the “Obsidian” card where you must stake £300,000 worth of CRO.

There are 5 different cards in total, and they all offer rewards for using them. Below is a screenshot of the 5 cards which shows the staking requirements and the “CRO rewards” available.

What is staking?

Staking is where you have to purchase a certain amount of cryptocurrency and lock it away for X amount of time.

In this instance, I chose the Ruby Steel card and had to purchase £300 worth of CRO which I have locked away for 180 days. This means that even if I wanted to withdraw that cash beforehand I couldn’t! That is the most important thing to be aware of here is that you would be locking away cash for a period of time.

Since this is a cryptocurrency when the 180 days are up, I could then either sell the CRO for whatever it is worth which could equally be £0 or £10,000 with the way the markets are at the moment, or I could re-stake the CRO to keep the perks of having the card.

What are the perks?

So this is the key reason for wanting to have a Crypto.com card.

With all of the cards, you receive “CRO rewards” as mentioned previously. These rewards are effectively cashback on all of your purchases and are at a set percentage between 1% (Midnight Blue) and 8% (Obsidian).

These rewards are converted from their fiat value (GBP, USD, etc) into CRO and paid into your Crypto.com wallet in CRO usually pretty instantly.

So is it just a cashback card? 

No is the short answer, but the long answer…

As you go further up the tiers you also get additional benefits such as Spotify, Netflix & Prime 100% reimbursements, 10% cashback on Airbnb, airport lounge access, and even a private jet partnership!

However, as with all things, the more money you have to offer, the better rewards you get.

So with the Ruby Steel card I have, I receive 2% cashback on all purchases (in CRO) and I also receive a 100% Spotify reimbursement.

Assuming that I spend £100 on the card per month, this would work out at around £24 per year of cashback.

The main attraction for me though is Spotify which would reimburse me approximately £9.99 per month which works out as an additional £119.88 per year.

Therefore, my plan is to use this card to pay for fuel for my car every month and to also pay for my Spotify.

This means that from staking £300 my return in the first year would be at least ~£144, which combined with their $25 sign-up bonus* comes to a total of £162 in the first year at a minimum.

Therefore, even if the “CRO” token halved in value I would still be in an okay position as £300 would fall to £150 in value but I would have made £162 back already.

I use Spotify for at least 8 hours a day and will continue to do so for the coming years, so this card will hopefully pay for itself in 2 years and fingers crossed CRO coin will be worth £300 or more when I finally plan to un-stake my CRO.

How does the card work?

Essentially, you get issued a debit card with a £0 balance. You will receive the metal card in the post in around 1 month after signing up for it. You can access this card via your Crypto.com app immediately though which allows you to top-up your card balance, and use it before the physical card arrives.

You can top this up via another card such as the main debit card from your current account, or even from a credit card. You won’t get charged any fees for doing this either (or at least Barclaycard hasn't charged me!)

So it is pretty easy to use as long as you are tech-savvy and happy with what you are doing.