I have been writing on this blog for slightly over a year. I have officially met my objective of writing investment-related topics for one year. 

Moving forward, I will be moving my content to the platform called Medium as there is a need for me to monetise my content.

Over the course of one year of writing on this blog, I earned zero revenue of any sort. 😰It is difficult to continue doing so without any form of income generated for the amount of effort and time that I have spent writing these blog posts. 

My writing style focuses on personal finance and the majority of the articles that I have written here were more than 800 words for each post. It is quality over quantity. 😌

You can continue to read my previous post here but for my upcoming posts, you will need to sign up to be a Medium member to get access to my newer articles. 

• If you want to read more of my work, consider signing up to be a member. For just 5 USD a month, you get access to unlimited articles on Medium.
• If you sign up using my link, I will receive a small commission.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

See ya! 😀

In this article, I will deep dive into the crypto.com mobile application and why it is important to own and use this for yourself today if you are thinking of going into the cryptocurrency space. 

With Binance announcing their full application withdrawal to provide cryptocurrency services in Singapore, there is one less player in the market. Those who are used to using Binance in the past to do P2P (peer to peer) transactions, staking, buying and selling crypto can consider alternatives such as the crypto.com ecosystem to meet your needs. 😁

For myself, I am using crypto.com more frequently now so as we speak. 

Click on the link (referral code: xiaogege) and perform the following steps to get a Free 25 USD sign-up bonus when you sign up for a crypto.com metal VISA card right now. 

(*if you have difficulty opening up this link in your mobile phone, you need to first open it using your phone's web browser)

This is not a sponsored post.😃 

The crypto.com ecosystem is made up of various components and this is the part that I will touch on for now. The mobile application can be downloaded on both the App Store and Google Playstore. 

Kindly read part 1 followed by part 2 and then part 3 before proceeding further to avoid getting lost and confused as each article is somewhat related to the next and all these provide a full understanding of the crypto.com ecosystem. 😁

Introduction to Crypto.com (Part 1 - Metal Debit Visa Card)

• Here I shared my opinion of using the crypto.com metal debit visa card for the Ruby Steel tier. Since then, I have already upgraded to the next tier which is the Royal Indigo and Jade Green card and enjoyed additional benefits. 

• A comparison of the advantages and disadvantages of owning a crypto.com metal visa card to other pre-paid debit cards in the market.

I have been using the crypto.com application for more than half a year and I did not encounter any issues and hassles while using it. 

The app runs normally and it does not lag in loading the images, numbers or text whenever I use it. 

It uses light and dark blue colour tones for the background with white colour fonts as a contrast. This makes it easy to read for our eyes and works best for both day and night time.

Below I share my top 8 reasons why the app is fantastic to use. 😋

Reason Number 1: Ease of Buying and Selling Crypto

The list of cryptocurrencies that is available to buy and sell is constantly growing in crypto.com. I do receive emails and notifications of new coins being added to the list every now and then. 

This is a no-brainer as everyone wants to be able to buy and sell their favourite crypto and having a huge listing of over 250+ coins available including Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Polkadot (DOT), USD Coin (USDC), and Crypto.org Coin (CRO) makes it absolutely convenient.

Not only that, there are more than 20+ fiat currencies accepted in the app as a mode of payment such as USD, EUR, GBP, SGD, etc. I think you will know what to do next. 😁

Reason Number 2: Flagship VISA Debit Card 

The amount of cash back you earn depends on which tier you chose to use. I highly recommend considering getting this if your current debit or credit card has zero cashback benefits whenever you make a purchase. 

I am using this at the moment and without a shadow of a doubt, it works great for me. Read my article part 1 and part 3 (links are above) to find out more as I share this in detail.

Click on the link (referral code: xiaogege) and perform the following steps to get a Free 25 USD sign-up bonus when you sign up for a crypto.com metal VISA card right now.

(*if you have difficulty opening up this link in your mobile phone, you need to first open it using your phone's web browser)

They also have the pay function which is using your own CRO or other crypto coins to pay for selected and available gift cards and to top up your prepaid mobile phone numbers in exchange for some CRO cash backs rewards.

To view the list of available gift cards merchants, kindly open the app and view the information under the gift card tab as shown in the screenshot.

I have explored this option and for now, I am not too interested to spend my CRO coins to buy gift cards etc. I just want to accumulate more CRO coins at the moment.

Reason Number 3: Real-Time Crypto Market Data

You can add favourites for those that you are interested in and also set price alerts to be notified of any price changes. 

There are two ways to set price alerts for every coin as shown below.  

Reason Number 4: No Fees When You Send Crypto To Others On The Platform 

Reason Number 6: 0% Credit/Debit Card Fees for the First 30 Days!

Users who successfully pass KYC verification from the list of eligible countries will qualify for the 0% fee offer for the first 30 days. After the 30-day period, credit/debit card fees will be charged and the fees vary by market. 

I got this offer as well when I first signed up and passed through the KYC verification process. I did not think twice and even bought some CRO back then with a credit card and was not charged any processing fees for the first 30 days. 

Quickly make use of the first 30 days to load up and buy to take advantage of this waiver. 

To set up other payment methods will require some time so you better take advantage of this first. 

I know of people who complain of being charged bank fees in the official Telegram and Facebook groups. Not too sure why they were charged but I did not face this problem.  

To check the list of eligible countries for 0% credit/debit card, click here. 

Reason Number 7: Deposit Fiat Currency With Ease 

For Singapore users, you can set up the payment method by straitsx (previously known as xfers) for using SGD fiat currency to directly buy crypto on the app. You will also need to link your straitx account with your crypto.com app account first. 

My initial set-up and linking took some time so I decided to buy CRO to stake and get my Ruby Steel VISA card using the credit/debit card wavier method first. 

I like this method very much and I will share more of this in a future article. 😀

For US citizens, you can deposit fiat currency via the ACH method or Wire Transfer. 

Reason Number 8: Increased Limit for Fiat Wallet

This is information is freshly baked from the oven. 

Starting from 11th Jan 2022, the deposit and withdrawal limits of multiple Fiat Wallets have been increased. The minimum amount for transfers has also been lowered for select Fiat Wallets.

 

"FORTUNE FAVOURS THE BRAVE". 

If you believe in the project and the team behind it, click on the link and perform the following steps to get the Free 25 USD sign-up bonus when you sign up for a crypto.com metal visa card right now.

http://crypto.com/app/xiaogege

Requirements

• Download the Crypto.com App and sign up for an account

(*if you have difficulty opening up this link in your mobile phone, you need to first open it using your phone's web browser)

• Enter [xiaogege] in the Referral Code field
• Complete KYC verification (guide) and stake CRO for a Crypto.com Visa Card (details)

I will be posting more crypto.com content so stay tuned! 😀

I have been using PancakeSwap for at least half a year. I will be penning down my thoughts and opinions based on my personal experiences using this platform for Liquidity Mining (Yield Farming).

Disclaimer: All information stated here is only for illustration and educational purposes. It's not financial advice to buy or sell any financial products. Please perform your own due diligence before investing as always.

What is this about?

PancakeSwap is a decentralised exchange (DEX) on the Binance Smart Chain. DEX is an online exchange that has no centralised governance or intermediary.

PancakeSwap is the biggest DEX on the Binance blockchain. Each blockchain will have its own DEX and competitors.

Initially, I was watching some Youtube videos of Liquidity Mining and Staking on PancakeSwap and I was super fascinated by the usage of super cool and cute names such as cakes, bakes and all those words to build its brand. 

It tried to differentiate itself from Etherum's Uniswap as a faster and cheaper alternative in gas fees. Those who are familiar with this situation will know about the astronomical gas fees on Ethereum for just doing basic withdrawals or purchase of NFTs.

I decided to give it a go and see how this works. PancakeSwap can be accessed on both laptop and mobile as long as you connect it to your own Binance wallet to sync your account to the exchange. 

For myself, I am using Trust Wallet to get access to Pancake Swap on my mobile so I don't really use the computer version at the moment. Trust Wallet got acquired by Binance so I decided to use this and not Metamask. 

Native Coin - CAKE

As always, it needs a coin in order for the exchange to function just like any other blockchain. The native coin in this case is CAKE. 

At this current moment, they are ranked #54 from the list of cryptocurrency coins based on market capitalisation. As long as you want to use the platform, chances are, you will require to buy some PancakeSwap coins to do your LM or staking activities. 

PancakeSwap Platform

They have redesigned the platform just 4 to 5 months ago so the interface is slightly different from how it looked on your screen before. 

Anyone can just enter into the website. But to start using its features, you will need to connect a crypto wallet to the platform first. I am connecting my Trust Wallet to this. Did not use Metalmask or other wallets whatsoever. 

I self-learn all these parts such as setting up my own Trust Wallet account and connecting the wallet to Pancake Swap to start using its features. There are tons of tutorials online so just watch and follow according. If I could do it, so can you. 😄

Once you enter into the platform, you will be greeted by this new interface design as shown.  

There are various tabs on the top of the interface. The most important function that people will use will be ‘EARN'. 

EARN has two subheaders called 'Farm' and 'Pool'

In essence, Farm is your Liquidity Mining (LM) feature and Pool is your staking feature.

You can go into the website and see more about the types of coins you can pair together to deposit into the LM pool. 

What is Liquidity Mining (LM)?

Liquidity Mining (yield farming) is people like you and me choosing to deposit a pair of two different crypto coins into a liquidity pool on a Decentralized Exchange (DEX) such as the one that I am going through is PancakeSwap for Binance Blockchain. 

You have to provide an equal monetary amount for both coins into the LM pool to participate. 

In return, you will receive a reward from the specific liquidity pool to which you provided liquidity.

Usually, the reward percentage is super high from 20% to 400% kind of number. But please do not be deceived by the high APR/ APY. There is no free lunch in this world. Those high numbers are used to attract people to deposit liquidity into the pool. 

Normally, an LM pool with a higher APR/APY will have more risk such as the pool getting shut down one day without any notice etc. This was what I had experienced first-hand. 

Liquidity Mining Pool (First Try on PancakeSwap)

XMARK - BUSD Pool 

I decided to give it a try. I first prepared some stablecoins and deposited them into my Trust Wallet. I then opened the PancakeSwap application inside the Trust Wallet app. Click on Dapps and search for PancakeSwap from the search bar. Click it and open it.

Once I went in, I swapped the stablecoins into an equal amount of XMARK and BSUD coins which I needed for the LM later. This function can be found under the Trade tab as shown in the screenshot. 

Once I have the coins, I would proceed to the second tab EARN and select FARM. 

Initially, the reward return was around 180% per year and things were all good and rosy. But as time goes by, I started to notice a drop in reward returns from 180% to 140% to 100% to 80% to 50%, etc. 

This is the current status of the XMARK-BUSD LM pool. The pool is currently empty. I was dumbfounded just like you as well when I opened this page one day in Q4 of 2021. 

I went to check online and found out that Binance mentioned on their official page that this XMARK-BUSD LM pool was not very popular on their listings, and it was of the many LM pools that were shut down and closed on their platform. This was done so that people could continue to provide liquidity for the more popular pools. 😤

XMARK is a crypto that has higher risks as it is not yet proven or adopted by the masses yet. 

I was like, how can this even happen?😒I thought the purpose of the DEX is to be a decentralised exchange so having a central authority like Binance coming in to stop the pool was something unbelievable on their end. 

You might be wondering what had happened to my money in this LM pool. Luckily, I did not lose any money from this. I just withdrew my deposits from the LM pool at that point in time. The only thing that I lost was the impermanent loss as the result of the changing price movements of XMARK to BUSD. 

It was a nerve-wracking moment for me. From that experience, I knew that the LM pools are just a tool in this space. There are many LM pools floating around in different blockchains and different DEX platforms around the crypto space. 

With the right resources, one can open and start an LM pool and invite people to provide liquidity so please be sure and do your own research to know whether is the pool safe to deposit your money inside. 

Just remember before you invest in any LM pools, we do not need the LM pool to survive in life, but the LM pool will need all of our money and liquidity in order for the pool to run and function as programmed to. They need us more than we actually need them. 

They have the incentive (agenda) to publish and show very high APR / APY reward figures to attract you to provide liquidity for them and these high numbers might change in the future. Remember this! 

Liquidity Mining Pool (Second Try on PancakeSwap)

CAKE - BUSD Pool 

Nevertheless, I did a second attempt on LM in PancakeSwap for CAKE-BUSD. This time, I decided to play safe and chose this pairing. CAKE is the native token for PancakeSwap so I have confidence in this coin on its utility. On the other hand, BUSD is a stable coin so I am more confident on this as well. 

For now, it is still doing fine at the moment with a reward percentage of 41% APR. This percentage will keep changing every now and then so it is definitely not a fixed figure. 

Every time when I earn some CAKE from this LM pool, I will harvest and transfer it to my CAKE staking pool in the Pool tab as shown with an APY of 64%. Again, this APY figure is not fixed and it will fluctuate as well.

For now, I am not very convicted on LM pools in PancakeSwap, so I plan to run this for a while more and exit during the next crypto bull run. 

To me, there are just too many LM pools in the market right now. It is still very possible for more LM pools to shut down suddenly just like what happened to my XMARK-BUSD LM pool previously, so I don't really see this as a long term investment product in my honest opinion. 

Is Cypto.com metal VISA card the only cryptocurrency card that you will need for your daily spending now? 

Read till the end and see if this will change your mind. 😁 

Introduction

Hold your horses and grab some tea as in this article, I will deep dive into the technical portions regarding the metal VISA card and this includes comparisons with other prominent debit cards in the market as a benchmark. 😃

Previously, I have written an article to introduce crypto.com as a cryptocurrency project with a growing ecosystem of financial services that allows you to pay, earn, lend, trade, store your crypto. Click here to read this article (part 2 - crypto.com) first before continuing further.

Crypto.com Metal VISA Card

I am an existing user of crypto.com products and services. I am currently using their Royal Indigo / Jade Green metal VISA card (need to stake 5000 SGD worth of CRO for 180 days) that allows me to spend and get a 3% CRO cashback. That means that for every 100 SGD that I spend, I will earn 3 SGD in CRO cashback.

Do note that all fiat currencies in this article are in Singapore dollars denomination unless otherwise stated. 

These are the key points for Royal Indigo / Jade Green that I am enjoying now. HAHA.

Initially, I was using the Ruby Steel card (need to stake 500 SGD worth of CRO for 180 days) for close to 6 months with just a 2% CRO cashback before I recently upgraded to my current tier just last month. Yahoo!!!🙋 

These are the key points for Ruby Steel.

Kindly take note that you do not need to wait until the 180 days is up before you upgrade. You can upgrade to the next tier at any point in time as long as you fulfil the amount of CRO to stake. I upgraded to the next tier in just around 160 days!😁

I came across this product by chance online and saw the potential of earning cashback in CRO crypto (Percentages depends on your card tier) as the most obvious and plain simple reason for wanting to own one of these. 

In this era of evergrowing blockchain technology, I could not let this opportunity slip by and I decided to sign up for this even before Crypto.com started to broadcast their marketing campaigns and doing partnership with big brands around the world to generate mass awareness. 

After using the crypto.com metal VISA card and earning CRO crypto cashback whenever I buy something, it is very difficult for me to revert and use other cards that do not provide any form of cashback benefits.😂

Not forgetting their cards are full 100% made of metal. 

I am always on the lookout to find ways to spend and earn crypto in an effortless way and my current bold plan is to bootstrap from my current position all the way to 50,000 SGD and upgrade to the next card tier which is essentially the Frosted Rose Gold / Icy White with 5% CRO cashback benefit by the end of next year.😅

As you upgrade upwards, there will be more and more benefits. 

Each card has its own amount of CRO to stake and cashback as rewards. Choose and decide which one suits you best according to your needs. 

I wrote my first experience using the crypto.com Ruby Steel metal card in an earlier article. Click here to read it before continuing further. 

Click on the link (referral code: xiaogege) and perform the following steps to get a Free 25 USD sign-up bonus when you sign up for a crypto.com metal VISA card right now. 

(*if you have difficulty opening up this link in your mobile phone, you need to first open it using your phone's web browser)

This is not a sponsored post.😃 I have been writing and publishing my own investment-related articles for over a year for free to share my ideas/opinions so that more can make their money work as hard for them while they sleep. 😀

What Is A Pre-Paid Debit Card?

The Battle of Pre-Paid Cards

To see what is the situation like in the market, I scout across the internet to investigate which traditional banking prepaid debit cards could rival and put up a fight with crypto.com's metal VISA card. 

As expected, there were literally tons of debit cards available in the market and many actually do not have any cashback benefits at all let alone earning crypto cashback. 

Those that have some sort of cash related cashback will usually require specific purchases from certain shops, brands or platforms, etc. 

Below is a card that is more prominent in Singapore.

DBS Visa Debit Card - Your Multi-Currency Card

Click here to find out more about this. 

If you see the amount of cashback, it is roughly equivalent to the Royal Indigo / Jade Green metal VISA card. If you using the DBS VISA debit card, your cashback is in SGD fiat currency and the percentages vary based on which category you spend on which is limited to just online food delivery and local transport. 

After eliminating those cards from the picture, below I painstakingly summarise two other companies' cards in the tables below.

The first card is the American Express Serve Cash Back. (in the USA)

The second card is the Wirex Visa Travel Card which comes in 3 tiers mainly Standard, Premium and Elite which is the closest fight to crypto.com metal card structure and benefits.

The first table shows the cashback benefits across different cards. 

American Express Serve Cash Back (#1 card)

Those living in the USA will be more familiar with this card. This allows users to spend and obtain 1% unlimited cashback in cash at all available places that permit the usage of this card for both in-store and online.  That means that for every $100 that you spend, you will earn $1 in cashback.

Do note that there are card sign-up fees, monthly fees and top-up fees. 

This card only can pick a fight with Crypto.com - Midnight Blue card which only gives spenders 1% cashback. The difference is the former receive cashback in USD fiat currency while the latter receives CRO crypto coins. 

This is the trade-off that you have to weigh on of being able to pay using American Express but with a cashback that is constantly fixed at 1% and not having options to upgrade upwards. Might be a bummer to some. Do you get where I am coming from? 

Wirex Visa Travel Card (#2 card)

This card took one step further which is a multicurrency and crypto card for spending. This company offers three tiers mainly Standard (cashback 0.5% in WXT crypto), Premium (1% in WXT crypto) and Elite (2% in WXT crypto) which constitute various levels of Cryptoback rewards as they like to call it.

I will show just the standard plan perks and costs in this case.

For more details of the Premium and Elite plans, click here.

In order to get the 2% WXT crypto cashback, one has to sign up for the Elite card plan which includes a monthly fee of $29.90.

This is the biggest difference compared to crypto.com's card structure who chose to not charge any monthly fees with the condition that users will need to stake up 500 SGD worth of CRO coins in the Ruby Steel tier for 180 days to get a 2% CRO crypto cashback as an apple to apple comparison.

In the longer term, staking 500 SGD in CRO coins will make more sense as this is a one-time investment sunk cost. Also, this amount of CRO coins still belong to you in your account and this coin will likely appreciate in value over time when the utility of this coin grows bigger in the future as mentioned in my part 2 - article on the future roadmap for crypto.com

If you were to pay $29.90 for the Elite Wirex card, you will constantly have to pay this variable cost monthly to maintain this plan. This is an expense that cannot be recovered back no matter what happens. This is more suited for those who need a multifunction card while travelling on the go in my opinion.

Takeaways From Crypto.com Metal VISA Card

1. Daily Spending

Speaking from the personal view after using crpyto.com card for a while now, this card is most suited for everyday daily necessity spending on groceries, shopping and commuting on bus and subway, etc as long as VISA is accepted as a mode of payment.

2. Crypto Cashback

If you see and believe in Crypto as the future, why not start collecting crypto instead of cash as cashback?

With inflation rising to uncontrollable levels and eating up our fiat currency's spending powers, this is the least we can do for ourselves right? 😃

3. Reimbursement of Spotify / Netflix / Prime and many more

Depending on the amount of CRO that you stake and the card tier that you select, this will give you different benefits.

For my current card tier at Royal Indigo / Jade Green metal VISA card, I am enjoying some of the following:

• Spotify- reimburse per month up to USD 12.99 monthly subscription fee
• Netflix- reimburse per month up to USD 13.99 monthly subscription fee
• Airport lounge access for myself 
• Additional 10% CRO staking weekly reward which is damn good!

Click on the link (referral code: xiaogege) and perform the following steps to get a Free 25 USD sign-up bonus when you sign up for a crypto.com metal VISA card right now.

(*if you have difficulty opening up this link in your mobile phone, you need to first open it using your phone's web browser)

4. Fees

Just stake CRO coins according to your card tier as the only condition to be a part of this.

• No monthly fees
• No annual fees
• No set-up fees
• No card delivery fee (*only 1st card is waived off. Subsequent card when you upgrade your tier or replacement of cards will require $50 payment)

When I upgraded to the Royal Indigo / Jade Green from the Ruby Steel tier, I chose not to buy a new card and continued using my existing Ruby Steel card just to save that $50 card replacement fee.

I received all the benefits of Royal Indigo / Jade Green, just that my card cannot access the Airport lounge unless I replace it with the new tier card.

5. Card Balance / Top-up

At any point in time, you can only have 5000 SGD on your metal VISA card.

The total amount that you can spend with this card cannot exceed 30,000 SGD in a year.

If you want to top-up your metal VISA card and avoid card processing fees, you can top up via Revolut which is what I am doing now. So convenient!

6. Who can sign up for a crypto.com metal VISA card?

You must be 18 years old or older to sign up for this. 

The crypto VISA card is currently available in the US, Europe, the UK, Canada, and Singapore. To view the list of countries in Europe, refer to this link. 

7. Sign up Process

Sign up for a crypto.com VISA card by downloading the Crypto.com App and completing our KYC - know your customer verification.

There are 3 steps required as follows:

a. Accept the Terms & Conditions

b. Have sufficient CRO in your App wallet to stake them for 180 days' lock-up period. You will first have to purchase CRO before you can stake in the App.

c. Submit & confirm your delivery address. When the Crypto.com VISA cards are ready to ship, users will be prompted to update the App and stake CRO, if they have not already.

The card status will be updated in the App, once all of the above steps are completed and the card is being shipped. For cardholders in Singapore, it means that you can expect your card to arrive within the next 3-7 business days.

When you receive the package it will look damn dope on the outside just like mine. Own one today!

 

"FORTUNE FAVOURS THE BRAVE". 

If you believe in the project and the team behind it, click on the link (referral code: xiaogege) and perform the following steps to get the Free 25 USD sign-up bonus when you sign up for a crypto.com metal visa card right now.

http://crypto.com/app/xiaogege

• Click on the link and download the app via the Apple App store or Google Play store

(*if you have difficulty opening up this link in your mobile phone, you need to first open it using your phone's web browser)

• Submit and confirm your email
• Do the KYC verification

I will be posting more crypto.com content so stay tuned! 😀