Crypto.com Announces Token Swap For MCO
Last night, Crypto.com announced the MCO Swap Program. The program will swap out all MCO tokens for a preset amount of CRO tokens, roughly 27 CRO per MCO. In addition, Crypto.com is adding a 20% bonus which brings the rate up to 33 CRO per MCO. Crypto.com is doing this in advance of their mainnet launch of the CRO token, which will be the utility token for the entire Crypto.com ecosystem.
The announcement comes at a time when members of the Crypto.com Reddit have been pondering the fate of the MCO token, which in their opinion has not received any love from the company. This move eliminates the complicated relationship the company had with championing two tokens. In my own opinion, this was a smart move. Even for me, not being one of the malcontents, it was difficult to choose between MCO and CRO. The problem is the old saying about chasing two rabbits and catching none. MCO had the card perks. CRO has the 16 to 18% interest. Perks and yield are two compelling benefits that were exclusive of each other until now.
The token swap means that the MCO Visa card (or is not now CRO Visa card?) now earns cash back on purchases in CRO rather than MCO. It also means that staking for card benefits is done with CRO. Unfortunately, the new card tiers are much higher than they were for MCO. For example, the Ruby Steel card required a 50 MCO stake, which was around a $200 outlay. Now that same card will require a 5,000 CRO stake, which is about an $800 outlay. That also means that the Indigo/Jade cards have moved from 500 MCO ($2000) to 50,000 CRO ($8000). Before complaining too much, it is important to keep in mind that some of this is mitigated by having a higher interest rate on staked and deposited CRO tokens. Getting 16% or 18% interest is not too shabby. It would go a long way towards achieving the higher card tiers. Although, the move to Icy White/Rose Gold (500,000 CRO at $85,000) leaves one a little breathless. That's a considerable sum of money to tie up in one basket. However, at 18% interest, you're looking at an income of $15,300 per year in CRO, at today's prices. Can they sustain the interest rate for long?
In my own personal case, I already had the 500 MCO card. Others like me are grandfathered in to the rewards tier as long as we do not withdraw the CRO from staking. We can renew our stake and keep the perks. This is important because after the swap, I am less than halfway to the 50,000 CRO needed to reach the same tier.
The process of converting MCO to CRO was simple, there is a tile you can tap to take you to the conversion function. You select the different stacks of MCO, which are in the wallet, stake, and Earn, to convert. Then you accept the Terms and Conditions before submitting for conversion. Boom. That's it.
The conversion will obviously have tax consequences. You are, after all, making a trade and getting a 20% bonus. The alternative is to allow your MCO to sit there and become worthless.
Going back to the two rabbits chase, it was always a difficult decision for me to either buy up MCO for the card benefits, or buy CRO for the interest rate. Having this choice removed makes things much simpler. I can eat my cake and have it too. Every purchase goes towards building up my stake to the next card level. The interest rate helps speed things up in that direction. There is better synergy amongst the products by having them all connected with a common token. For me, this is a great improvement. However, there are many early supporters for whom it seems like a betrayal. They have been holding MCO since the ICO in the hopes that Crypto.com would reward them for their loyalty. Obviously, this is problematic in that it would make the MCO token more of a security, which would have much higher scrutiny from governments. Unfortunately, they can't be convinced that they are getting a good deal with the swap and bonus.
Crypto.com is having an AMA on Aug 4 at 7:00 UTC. It should be fun to watch how they answer questions about the changes, or don't. The AMA will be live. Be sure to check it out. There will certainly be a ton of questions about the swap and upcoming roadmap.
Originally posted on Travel Write Money. Hive blog powered by ENGRAVE.
