Crypto.com Slashes Card Rewards, CRO Tokens Drop 11% as Community Reacts<br /><br />Revisions to Crypto.com’s card and staking rewards sent token prices tumbling as much as 11% as the community expressed dismay over the changes that go into effect after June 1.<br />In a blog post on Sunday, Crypto.com said it would reduce rewards on the usage of its Visa-enabled cards based on the tiers offered.<br />Lower tiers – such as Midnight Blue and Ruby Steel – would get 0%, Royal Indigo and Jade Green would get 0.5%, Icy White and Frosted Rose Gold would get 1%, while Osbidian, the highest tier, would get just 2%.<br />Revised tier rates.<br />(Crypto.com)<br />Monthly rewards on the lower tiers would be capped from $25 to $50, while there would be no rewards cap on the higher tiers, the company said.<br />Staking rewards on Crypto.com’s cards would additionally cease after completion of the 180-day period for all those who staked on May 1 or before, except for cards of the lowest two tiers.<br />These are a steep drop from current rates of 1% on the lower-tier cards, to over 8% on the highest tier, depending on staked funds.<br />Crypto.com’s prepaid cards are a popular product within crypto circles, allowing users to load up supported cryptocurrencies or stablecoins and spend fiat at Visa merchants.<br />Meanwhile, other benefits on the cards, such as cashbacks on subscription services and complimentary airport lounge access, would continue.<br />Furthermore, interest rates on Crypto.com’s Earn product, which allows users to earn up to 14% on crypto holdings, remain unchanged.<br />Community reacts<br />Card users expressed dismay over the changes in social media posts on Reddit and Twitter.<br />Most comments criticized the decision.<br />“I’m going to continue to use the card for the remainder of my staking period and then unstake and say goodbye to the card,” claimed one Reddit user.<br />“Not the end but they just lost a lot of customers,” said another.<br />Some on Twitter said yield rates offered on decentralized finance (DeFi) applications were much more lucrative as a use of idle capital.<br />Prices of CRO, Crypto.com’s native tokens, fell 11% in the past 24 hours with the bulk of losses coming in the hours after the rewards decision.<br />CRO traded over $0.36 on Sunday, and fell to as low as $0.29 in Asian hours on Monday before slightly recovering at writing time.<br />CRO prices fell sharply.<br />(TradingView)<br />Some analysts explained that the lack of adequate rewards contributed to a lower fundamental value for CRO tokens, which led to the price drop.<br />"Staking CRO tokens enabled rewards for users and incentivized the use of their debit card," shared Edson Ayllon, Product Manager at dHEDGE, in a Telegram message.<br />"Reducing cashback rewards reduced the intrinsic value proposition of CRO.<br />This is similar to how DeFi protocols use liquidity mining to attract assets.<br />It's often intended to bootstrap liquidity, and we see in DeFi that when the incentives dry up, often the token price takes a hit."<br />Crypto.com returned no requests for comments at writing time.<br />