I believe passive crypto earning will be a game changer in the crypto space as more and more people are looking for options to earn some recurring rewards on the crypto they hold. Everyone knows that cryptocurrencies are regularly subjected to crazy bullish and bearish cycles and long time HODLers wish there was a way to get some returns on the crypto they have been holding for such a long time.
This explains why crypto staking, DeFI crypto lending and CeFI crypto lending has received such high level of interest. I have already done several posts on crypto staking and decided to wait a while before experimenting with DeFI as the ETH processing charges are too high these days. I started researching about which are the best CeFI options and the two most popular options seem to be Nexo and Crypto.com.
I recently did a post on how was my experience with Nexo which you can find here - https://www.publish0x.com/crypto-projects-sams-reviews/cefi-diaries-1-why-i-decided-to-try-out-nexo-xdrxgdd
I had been planning to try out Crypto.com for a long time but was stuck as it only comes as a mobile app and doesn’t have a laptop friendly portal. I am not a fan of mobile only applications as then losing my phone can be a big risk. I had been avoiding Crypto.com for a long time but I kept getting bombarded with so many great reviews about it that I had to try it out. The next challenge I faced was that Crypto.com requires the latest iOS on your phone and my phone is very old which does not support the new iOS. Finally I found a workaround as my iPod Touch had the latest iOS and was able to install Crypto.com.
In this article I will be comparing Nexo and Crypto.com as per my personal experience and my own preferences about what I expect from a crypto lending platform. I have put them side by side on the key criteria and have put forth an unbiased assessment. I solemnly declare that Nexo or Crypto.com have not paid me a single penny to write this post.
#1 “Show me the Money” - Interest Earning Potential
End of the day this most important as what everyone expects is a good return on the crypto they are lending to the platform.
Nexo- 4% on Crypto and 8% on Stablecoins. This is raised to 5% on Crypto and 10% on Stable coins if you hold 10% Nexo tokens. This means for $100 of crypto you lend on the site you need to hold $10 of Nexo tokens to avail the higher rates. Pretty straight forward and easy to follow rule in my opinion.
Crypto.com- There are 2 tiers for the earning depending on whether you hold 50 MCO tokens or 500 MCO tokens.
50 MCO Stake – 1 month lending gets you 2-3.5% on Crypto and 8% on Stable coin. 3 month lending gets you 4-4.5% on Crypto and 10% on stablecoin.
500 MCO Stake – 1 month lending gets you 4-4.5% on Crypto and 10% on Stablecoin. 3 month lending gets you 5.5-6.5% on Crypto and 12% on Stablecoin
Score: Nexo – 8/10 and Crypto.com 6/10.
My rationale for deducting 2 points from Nexo is that they have put a % on Nexo staking and it would have been better to put a defined number of tokens. This creates a problem when your crypto suddenly rises in value then your Nexo holding may fall below 10% and your rate of interest will automatically drop. The reason I have scored Crypto.com even lower is as they have overcomplicated their interest structure with so many conditions on MCO staking and interest holding period and the rate differs for each crypto which makes it much more complicated to use than Nexo.
#2 Security of your Precious Coins
Nexo- Uses BitGo custodial services so even if Nexo gets hacked your coins will be safe. Further Nexo insures your crypto for $100M.
Crypto.com- Has a partnership with Ledger to maintain cold storage of the coins and it has also insurance of $100M.
Score: Nexo – 6/10 and Crypto.com 5/10.
The reason I have given a low score to both is as ultimately we ae handing over our coins to another company which will have some risk of losing our coins. I am giving crypto.com 1 point less as having a mobile only app makes it more vulnerable.
#3 User Experience and Benefits
Nexo- Nexo has a very intuitive and easy to follow interface which makes the site accessible for even crypto noobs. One drawback they have is they don’t offer any special benefits and referral rewards to their users. It’s like being a bit too smug or arrogant in thinking they are so good that people will use it despite not offering any special freebies. The only reward users get is dividend payouts in NEXO tokens.
Crypto.com- This is probable the strongest point of Crypto.com as it has been heavily marketing it’s $50 referral scheme and it’s attractive shiny metallic credit cards which offer higher level of benefits as you stake more and more MCO.
Score: Nexo – 6/10 and Crypto.com 9/10.
I am personally not a big fan of these freebies and marketing reward schemes as in the long term it does not matter. Plus I am not a high roller who will get a lot of benefits from the airport lounge access crypto.com is offering. I am aware that some people appreciate it so I guess the clear winner in this area is Crypto.com
My Final Verdict: Nexo - 20 Crypto.com - 20
More or less it’s a tie and I have to admit Nexo and Crypto.com both are good options and for now I am using both. They have their strong points and weak points and might be more suitable for a different set of userbases. If you are planning to pick one among these two then my recommendation would be:
Go with Nexo- If you are new in crypto world or are planning to start out by investing small amounts. It is a simple to use platform and offers decent rewards. If in future you decide to invest more than you can scale up by simply buying more NEXO tokens aligned to 10% of your crypto deposited.
If you decide to go for Nexo feel free to use my referral- https://nexo.io/?u=5f1357d1256fa8503b218d12
Keep in mind that neither you nor me will get any bonus with this referral. NEXO says they will just monitor our deposits and use some complex calculations to give us some extra NEXO during the next dividend payout.
Go with Crypto.com- If you are very familiar with how crypto works and are a big player and a 500 MCO deposit ($2,000) is not a big deal for you.
If you decide to go for Crypto.com feel free to use my referral- https://platinum.crypto.com/r/vh42mm5rqr
One word of caution on the referral. You will get $50 worth of MCO on using the referral link but it will be locked. To unlock it you will have to buy 50 MCO which is worth about $200.
Hope you found this useful and if you think I might have missed out anything important about these platforms do let me know in the comments section.
Cheers,
SamBTC
_________________________________________________________________
CRYPTO PUBLISHING PLATFORMS:
Publish0x Referral - https://www.publish0x.com?a=zPdyJz7eQr
Read.Cash Referral - https://read.cash/r/SamBTC
LBRY Referral - https://lbry.tv/$/invite/@Crypto_Sense:1
Join me on Medium - https://medium.com/@spradhan.dce
CRYPTO SEARCH PLATFORM:
PreSearch Referral - https://www.presearch.org/signup?rid=1557018
CRYPTO FRIENDLY BROWSER:
Brave Referral - https://brave.com/mil098
CRYPTO EXCHANGES/ WALLETS:
Coinbase Referral - https://www.coinbase.com/join/pradha_zc
Binance Referral - https://www.binance.com/en/register?ref=XBHUADSU
Atomic Wallet Referral - https://atomicwallet.io/join?kid=19NNBQ
NEXO Referral - https://nexo.io/?u=5f1357d1256fa8503b218d12
Crypto.com Referral - https://platinum.crypto.com/r/vh42mm5rqr
My Youtube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzVmB63Uy85-Wg9e0IeNIzA
Good one