Here's Why I'm Closing My Crypto.Com Account in 2023

When the risks outweigh the rewards, it could be time for a change.

It isn't easy to choose a crypto exchange, especially with the high levels of uncertainty we've experienced in recent months. The right platform needs to be usable, secure, trustworthy, and affordable. Crypto.com is many of those things, but some of the decisions it has made this year struck the wrong note with me, and I now plan to close my account.

The decision to close my Crypto.com account

I've been a Crypto.com customer for some time and use my Crypto.com Card for a lot of my spending. To be fair, as an exchange, Crypto.com still checks a lot of boxes, particularly in terms of security. It says 100% of user crypto holdings are kept offline in cold storage and it has third-party insurance against theft. Plus, U.S. dollars on the platform are protected by FDIC insurance against platform failure.

However, the collapse of FTX raises questions about the entire industry. I don't want to keep any assets on any crypto platform unless there's a compelling reason to do so. In the case of Crypto.com that reason used to exist in the form of rewards on my staked funds and other benefits such as crypto rewards on my Crypto.com Card spending. This is no longer the case.

Significant drop in staking rewards

One of the draws of the Crypto.com exchange is that the more of its native Cronos (CRO) token you stake, the more benefits you can unlock on the platform. However, this year Crypto.com has significantly reduced those benefits.

For example, I have 5,000 CRO staked on the exchange. It used to earn an APR of 10%. Now it earns 0%. Those staked tokens do qualify me for other benefits such as reduced trading fees and higher earning rates on its Earn product. But I'm barely using those services.

I do use my Ruby Steel Crypto.com Card. The trouble is that the costs involved are now greater than the rewards I receive. In fact, many traditional credit cards offer better rewards.

• I used to earn 2% in rewards on my spending, but now I only get 1%, and monthly rewards are capped at $25.
• Crypto.com introduced a 1% top-up fee for E.U. and U.K. customers, so it costs me as much to put money on my card as the rewards I earn for spending it.
• I used to get reimbursed for my monthly Spotify subscription, but now that perk is only valid for six months.
• In December, I will have to pay a foreign transaction fee of 2% on purchases and ATM withdrawals outside the E.U. and U.K.

Part of me wants to applaud the platform for pulling back on its rewards, as it may mean it is better positioned to weather the crypto winter. However, as a customer who owns and stakes CRO to be part of a community, I don't feel Crypto.com's decisions are super respectful of the people who hold its tokens. I would have preferred it to invest more in keeping its existing customers than to pursue high cost sponsorship and marketing deals.

Pros and cons of leaving your crypto on an exchange

Looking at the bigger picture, FTX's spectacular implosion makes me question the wisdom of leaving my cryptocurrency on an exchange, period. New crypto investors often find it easy to leave their assets on the exchange where they bought it. You can often stake crypto right there on the platform and you don't have to figure out how to use a wallet or withdraw your funds. If you lose your password, it's usually easy to recover it.

However, if your crypto exchange is hacked or fails, your funds may not be safe. The risks vary from platform to platform, and a lot depends on what the exchange does with client funds. Some exchanges are a lot more transparent and use third-party auditors to show users their funds are safe. The challenge is that there's limited regulation, making it difficult to know exactly what's going on behind the scenes. In contrast, you're the only one who can mismanage funds in your non-custodial crypto wallet.

That isn't to say non-custodial crypto wallets are totally safe. You're completely responsible for the security of your account. So your crypto could be at risk if, say, you get malware on your computer. Plus, people can and do lose their passwords. The New York Times estimates that about 20% of the Bitcoin in circulation is stuck in wallets that people can no longer access.

Not everybody is ready to be their own bank. But if you're worried by what happened at FTX, it's certainly worth learning more about how crypto wallets work. It's also important to compare your crypto products with what old-school banks are offering -- you may find you get better deals in a non-crypto world.

Bottom line

Crypto.com wobbled in the immediate aftermath of the FTX collapse, but its CEO Kris Marszalek insists customer funds are safe. That's great. And if Crypto.com hadn't slashed its benefits so much that I'd earn a higher APY on dollars held in a traditional savings account and get better rewards from a traditional credit card, I'd have been tempted to trust the company and keep my funds on the platform. Instead, it is time to move my assets elsewhere and close my account.