Exchanges often tend to join in to the crypto market with their own token or coin. This is to help promote themselves and allow for certain use cases on their platform with the help of their crypto. Today we'll take a look into Crypto.com's CRO token to take a look at how it can be used and if it's worth its spot on the top 50 list of crypto based on marketcap.
Background
Crypto.com opened its doors in 2016, under a different name initially, Monaco as well as it also has a sibling token MCO. The MCO coin was switched over to CRO to get the token a fresh start as it had some trouble as well as suffering from pump and dumps. The development team have delivered and followed their roadmap since launch. They've added DEFI swap, NFT, native chain & oracle support through Chainlink. The coin has had a great deal to prove as the previous token's issues with market manipulation and the company's struggle with its legal structure.
Their DEFI swap which aims at swapping various exchange token went live in 2020. It saw users get high returns and promised to allow up to, or even above 300% APR. One thing to note is that Crypto.com reserves the right to withdraw a small amount of the funds & fees for development. In spring the following year the Crypto.com NFT platform was launched. Their NFTs have had a spike of users, especially with their recent lootbox NFT drops, giving users DOGE/SHIB, ETH/BTC and cards that gave users chance to win up to 1 bitcoin.
Network
CRO exists both as a native token to the CRO blockchain and as an ERC-20 token. It is a proof-of-stake that runs on delegated validators, this means that validators can only be chosen by Crypto.com themselves. This means that the token isn't decentralized and despite that you can argue that it's safer for only using chosen validators, systems that are centralized carry more inherit risk. The token/coin can only be used throught the smartphone app or on the exchange, outside of those spaces it doesn't serve much of any function. The company behind this token have only used its internal funds for development and liquidity which is promising for its users as it indicates more security for deposits. The company is burning CRO at regular intervals to help prevent the price from inflating.
Use cases
What you can use the coin/token for and what services it hosts are numerous, perhaps too many. There's the Crypto.com app, exchange, wallet, pay system & defi swap. You also have the earn, staking, supercharger, NFT, rewards and lending program. This may seem daunting but you can choose to simply use the features that are relevant to you.
Their earning programs (stake, earn & supercharge) simply allow you to grow your crypto portfolio with the use of the CRO coin. NFTs most users don't delve into but there is an option for that market on the CRO chain. Their crypto card rewards program is the best guaranteed return on your investment out of all of them, granted you can make higher ROI on their defi swap but you need a large amount of CRO to hit that APY.
CRO Today
Crypto.com is in a weird place at the moment. They are fighting to reach out to more users with frequent marketing and competitions, yet they are swinging around the 30th mark on marketcap. Their services they provide have had great trouble in the past, even going offline frequently as users surged to their platform when crypto was booming. They seemed to have learned from their past as the recent price surges and dips have seen the platform stay online, despite when their competitors went offline.
Their services are constantly being revamped and upgraded and they are providing a great deal of features that most competitors simply don't. Other competitor tokens have also been struggling and CRO has kept up to pace with them and is gaining closer, today it is the second largest exchange token. Despite this their popularity doesn't seem to directly correlate with their CRO performance. I would recommend trying this crypto out solely for their card as it is the crypto card I am comparing any and all cards on the market to.