Staking any cryptocurrency should be viewed as a long-term investment. Staking reward payouts are not near as important as the fundamentals of the investment asset. Anyone caught holding a bag of UST earning that incredible 20% knows what I’m talking about.
So, in order to answer the question of whether CRO staking is worth it, one should understand the company and blockchain along with the token and staking reward details. The following will do precisely that!
What is Crypto.com
Crypto.com is a Singapore-based company offering an encompassing menu of blockchain-focused trading, payment, and financial services to a global client base. Known for its sleek advertising campaigns (Fortune Favors the Brave with Matt Damon and the Los Angeles Crypto.com Sports Arena), the company ranks among other tier-one blockchain trading providers such as Coinbase, Binance, and FTX.
Crypto.com was founded in 2016. The company offers approximately 250 cryptocurrencies and several financial products including a crypto-backed Visa debit card to roughly 50 million users across 90 countries.
What is Cronos
Cronos is a decentralized, proof-of-stake blockchain developed and maintained by Crypto.com. The Cronos blockchain is Crypto.com’s foray into the blockchain payments industry. This blockchain, backed by a private brokerage company, is somewhat analogous to Binance’s BNB blockchain.
Cronos is an EVM-compatible blockchain built on Cosmos. Crypto.com markets Cronos as an “easy-to-port platform” for Ethereum and EVM compatible dApp projects that want to plug into it. Cronos uses the Tendermint proof of stake consensus mechanism and is integrated into the Inter Blockchain Communications Protocol.
At a high level, Crypto.com’s mission is to use Cronos and its native token CRO to allow users to seamlessly pay for real-world goods with cryptocurrency. Please see our interview with Ken Timsit, Managing Director of Cronos for a behind the scenes look at Cronos
What is CRO
CRO is the Cronos blockchain’s utility token. CRO is mainly used as a medium of exchange and as an intermediary settlement fee currency for all Cronos blockchain transactions. Any participant that transacts on Cronos pays fees in CRO. The cryptocurrency is also used for staking and staking rewards for delegators and validators.
CRO currently has a market cap of $3.6B, ranking it at #25 of all cryptocurrencies. Due to its tokenomics, CRO might also be considered as a store of value coin. It has a max and circulating supply of 30.2 and 25.2 billion tokens, respectively. Thus, approximately 83% of CRO’s total supply has already been created.
CRO Staking
CRO staking uses a delegate proof of stake system. Investors delegate their CRO to validators, the latter of whom secure the network. Block rewards are paid in CRO, which are distributed to delegators after validators have been paid their commission.
Currently, delegators (that’s you!) are receiving a staking reward of 12.18% (adjusted for CRO inflation) on their CRO. Not terrible! Here are some other important details:
- No minimum stake requirement;
- 28-day unstaking lock-up period. Users can unstake at any time, but unstaking triggers a 28-day lock-up where users cannot trade or sell that CRO; and,
- Slashing enabled! Select your validators carefully! Ideally,…
David learned about bitcoin in 2015 and has closely followed the crypto industry since then. His professional interests center around bitcoin, layer-one blockchain protocols, decentralized finance, and clean energy. An attorney by trade, David has held licenses to practice law in the State of Hawaii and in US federal courts.
