Description

My wife sent me a referral email for Crypto.com which is a cryptocurrency trading platform and cryptocurrency wallet. The invitation code indicates that when you “refer a friend now and you both get $25, with each successful sign-up and a valid transaction.”

So, I signed up, gave them my personal information (including a photo of myself and my driver’s license as part of their verification system) and found out that many hoops have to be jumped through in order to get the $25 reward.

First, the reward is not $25. That is, it is not twenty five US Dollars as their email indicated. Instead, it is the equivalent of $25 in their proprietary cryptocurrency known as CRO. I signed up for this service yesterday and my $25 in CRO has lost more than 5% of its value already.

Worse, in order to “unlock” my CRO and convert it into the US Dollars I was promised, I have to “stake” their cryptocurrency to the tune of $400. As far as I can gather, this means that I have to purchase $400 worth of CRO and hold it for 180 days AND sign up for their credit card. Once I’ve held $400 in CRO for 180 days I can withdraw the $25 worth of CRO–which will be worth either more or less than 25 USD by that time. Further, I may have suffered losses on thesum that I staked in order to get my $25 reward. If I had staked $400 in CRO yesterday I would have lost $20 over the last 24 hours due to market fluctuations.

In addition, it seems like offering incentives to those who will stake CRO could be used as a way for the company to pump the value of their proprietary cryptocurrency.

Obviously, I want my personal data back, I want my account to be deleted, and I want Crypto.com to stop their deceptive business practices.