Switching to Crypto.com from Blockfi, a Misadventure
Tags: Crypto, Personal Finance, Cryptocurrency, Defi, Savings Account

Take me to your Don Quixote! I want to tilt against windmills…

TL;DR: Moar Interest, Up to 12% on Crypto.com vs. 8.6% on Blockfi. Also, FDIC insured. The “Earn” button doesn’t show on my app. Trusted Centralized Third Parties only work M-F, 9–5. Crypto.com thumbs down!

Switching to Crypto.com

Okay, after a delightful couple months earning 8.6% APR on Blockfi on my USDC (US Dollar Coin), as well as 5% on my Bitcoin deposit, my brother told me I should look into Crypto.com, saying that I could earn up to 12%.

After briefly perusing their website, it looks like the 12% is reserved for those staking 500 of their native coin MCO, which was currently retailing for over $5. $2,500 to get 12%? Seemed a tad steep.

Looking deeper, without the stake you could earn 10%. Still better than Blockfi, which was a massive step up from the half a percent I was getting from my Credit Union savings account.

10% interest per year for letting my USDC lie around seemed like an even better deal.

Oh yeah, if you’re a US Resident, your balance is covered by FDIC insurance, which one-ups Blockfi’s security, which isn’t FDIC insured:

https://crypto.com/en/security.html

Once my 8.6 interest landed on the Blockfi app on the 1st of June, I made the move to Crypto.com.

Oh if it were only that easy!

Crypto Wallet App, and the Crypto App

When I went to the Apple Appstore, there were 2 Crypto.com Apps, the regular Crypto.com App, and a standalone Crypto Wallet. I was thinking

“Why do they have 2 apps? It looks like the Crypto.com app already has an internal wallet, so what gives?”

I speculated that if I used the Crypto wallet maybe it would allow me to retain my private keys while earning interest. So I sent my Bitcoin there. As a parallel test, I sent my USDC to the Crypto app to compare and contrast.

I should have sent both to the Crypto app. While my Bitcoin landed in the Crypto Wallet app, it would NOT allow me to transfer the coins to the regular Crypto App in order to get interest (which was the point of this exercise).

Weird disconnect on what should have been a no brainer. Do they do no QA testing?

Crypto Wallet Not ready for Prime Time

At first the Crypto wallet didn’t even allow me to send my Bitcoin to my JAXX wallet. After a couple days something happened, and I was able to send to JAXX, then resend to the Crypto App. You would think having a native wallet would help avoid such shenanigans, but whatever. User Experience (Usex) has never been a strength in the crypto community of apps, but I would think by this time it would have improved. Blockfi’s Usex is actually pretty stellar — easy to deposit, easy to start earning.

Anyway, crypto deposited into the Crypto.com app, including 50 MCO tokens — I’m ready for my 10%!

No “Earn” button: No Earning

Except, I was unable too. According to their online instructions there should have been an “Earn” button showing up when I clicked their logo on the bottom center of their app.

Nada, zilch, zippo.

Not sure if they were disabling it, or if it was a bug in their app. Questions posed to their chat help went unanswered. Terrible customer service. No number to call either.

…But for 10% interest, I was willing to battle this out.

MCO Credit Card

In the meantime I was looking at their other offerings. Their credit card had some interesting benefits, like Spotify and Netflix reimbursement, staking rewards for MCO, 3% cash back yada yada.

Their website lists 5 credit card tiers based on the amount of MCO you stake. It was only after some digging that I figured out that the tiers are based on color of the card. I thought at first the colors were just a reflection of your personal preference, not an indication of the level of card.

A bit confusing.

Where’s the mythical “Earn” button?

I’m chalking these problems to the popularity of their program. I mean, who doesn’t want to earn 10% or more on their savings? USDC is just a crypto version of the USD that is earning near to nothing in your savings account. Once the muggle nocoiners figure this out there will be an increased rush towards increased yield.

Blockfi’s got them beat in the usability department for sure.

Cooling my heels for 3 days…

My brother seems to have no problem with the app. He sees the “earn” button and is starting in on getting 10% APR. Grrr!

Day 5

After 5 days with no response from Crypto.com I’ve decided to withdraw my funds from Crypto.com, and go back to Blockfi.

After searching the forums it looks like the missing “Earn” button is not uncommon. The solution being to contact support — which I did, four days ago! It always shows that they haven’t even looked at my requests, even though it says it typically only takes a few hours for a response.

Withdrawal issues

My USDC I was able to withdraw from Crypto.com with no problems, but the BTC withdrawal I was unable to complete. There’s a step where they ask you to verify through email, but while I received the USDC withdrawal confirmation email, I never received the one for Bitcoin.

Day 6

I kept trying to resend the BTC confirmation email with no email showing up in my inbox. Eventually, as a workaround I decided to trade the BTC to USDC, then withdrawing the USDC from Crypto.com to Blockfi.

This worked.

But now I needed to change my USDC back to BTC. The Blockfi mobile app didn’t seem to have a way to trade the USDC into BTC.

Ugh.

Sooo, I tried to transfer the USDC to JAXX to change it back to BTC.

My withdrawal got flagged for some reason, and I had to go through an identity check with my driver’s license and a facial recognition check where I had to turn my head left, then right.

It now says it may take a day to process.

I figure out that the desktop app allows trading, so I cancel the transfer, and trade the USDC back into BTC.

The Weekend

Since June 6th falls on a weekend (Saturday), I have to wait 2 days before Blockfi can approve my transfer cancellation, and my BTC trade.

They still use meatheads to approve and disapprove transactions. Wherefore art thou Defi? I’m uncharacteristically hoping for a drop in bitcoin’s price over the weekend.

“Trusted” Third Parties

Crypto was supposed to rid us of the need for trusted 3rd parties, such as banks. But until decentralized finance gets its act together 3rd parties such as exchanges are a necessary evil. And so I wait with bated breath as this process takes up to a business day. 24 hours with a volatile asset such as bitcoin can be a disaster waiting to happen. Especially when dealing with a (to me) substantial amount. And with daily swings of 20% not unheard of, I am taking an exchange imposed risk when I waited till Monday for approval.

Monday

Blockfi approves my deposits and I start earning interest. Luckily, BTC drops a couple hundred, and I’m back to earning interest in Bitcoin and USDC.

Crypto.com verdict

Until Crypto.com fixes their bug of the mysterious missing Earn button, I have to advise against using their services. And while I had to wait for approvals from Blockfi over the weekend, at least these actions occurred. Unlike Crypto.com who never got back to me even after an 8 day (and counting) wait.

From personal experience, and reading about the experiences of others, needing to be individually approved by Crypto.com before allowing the “Earn” button to appear can be a painful wait. And then adding insult to injury, not allowing BTC to be withdrawn raises suspicions on the reasons for doing so. Is it a bug, or a deliberate attempt to foil withdrawals of the coveted bitcoin?

The USDC withdrawal went off without a hitch, which forced me to trade my BTC to USDC in order to withdraw MY funds. And now trading back to Bitcoin comes with another identity verification delay as the price of BTC fluctuates.

Crypto.com, you have some work to do before I trust my funds with your services. 10%-12% is only tempting when I can actually start earning it.