Crypto.com's New "Instant Deposit" Program - Not So Instant
Please allow me to vent a little. I was very excited when I received an email about Crypto.com's new "Instant Deposit" program back on February 17th. I had previously been sending bank wire transfers to fund my account which can take a couple of days before your money is available to make transactions and/or withdraw to other platforms.
I had earmarked a decent sum of money for a DeFi yield farming project and received the email - excellent, I will sent the deposit straight to Crypto.com. Easy enough and my deposit was almost instantly in my account. I needed BUSD for the project so I first converted it to USDC, and then into BUSD. So far so good.
Now, you have to set up an external wallet which I had already done for this particular Metamask wallet address on the Binance Smart Chain. Unfortunately, I had set this up for BNB previously and apparently you have to set it up for each individual coin/token. This is unfortunate and causes a 24-hour delay. So I wait one day and then go to transfer the BUSD to the wallet I need it in to work with the DeFi project in question.
I go to transfer the BUSD, hit withdraw, select my external wallet, click Withdraw BUSD (Max amount), hit confirm and punch in my password. Presto! Well not Presto...
Submission Error - You are not permitted to perform the current transaction due to the pending funds or outstanding balance in your account.
WTF? I'm certain I have no outstanding balance and my "Instant Deposit" funds obviously cleared since I was able to purchase the BUSD. So I wait and try again thinking it is just a timing thing. No Luck. I then reduced the balance from "Max" to a little less in case there is some kind of transaction fee I'm missing. Nothing works, guess I will have to reach out to Crypto.com's crack customer service team.
I'm then told you have to wait up until 7 days to receive access to your "Instant Deposit". So after sending the initial deposit on Friday, March 18th at 11:01am, I keep checking periodically since, well a war broke out and crypto crashed and I can get in at great prices. I'm frustrated throughout but at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel - today, March 25th at 11:01am. Unfortunately I have a commitment that will force me to wait an extra two hours but it will be worth the wait other than the fact that the prices in the project are skyrocketing in the meantime.
Eagerly, I wrap things up and fire up the Crypto.com app to begin the process. Guess what? Same issue. I contact customer service once again because what can be more fun than that. And this is when I find out the real math behind Crypto.com's "Instant Deposit":
+7 - there is "up to" a 7-day waiting period for funds to be "processed"
+1 - the first day doesn't count in the calculation
+4 - they meant "business" days so I have to add in two weekends
So now, "Instant" in the Crypto.com world means 12 days that I know of so far. I look forward to finding out what holidays in my country and also Singapore, where Crypto.com is based, will also delay my deposit along with a myriad of other unforeseen delays. It would have been nice if they pointed this out in the email I received (see below) or one of their 3,000 employees pointed out the meaning of instant to the company. Crypto.com may "favor the brave" but they also seem to favor the leisurely, unhasty and slow-moving in a space that is anything but those tortoise-paced words.
Thanks for allowing me to vent. I've found my time in crypto to be both exhilarating and frustrating at the same time. I get super excited to try or do something and inevitably there are obstacles aplenty standing in the way. I hope over time things can run smoothly and "instantly" since that is one of the promises of blockchain technology.
What is frustrating you today? Regardless, have a great weekend!
