Published via Ecency

Crypto.com has activated locked terms for CRO staking. In recent days, the app has shown an app option to upgrade staking terms. But there were no options in the dropdown. This morning, the terms for upgrading to locked CRO staking are active.

The terms are:

Flexible - can unstake anytime - 4.44%
1 Year - unstake available September 2027 - 6.44%
2 Year - unstake available September 2028 - 8.44%
4 Year - unstake available September 2030 - 11.44%

The Cronos Network had mentioned the change months ago as part of a protocol upgrade. Until now, the change has not been available to users in the Crypto.com main app or the On-chain App. Currently, it is only available in the main app.

The protocol upgrade with fixed staking terms is an effort to incentivize CRO holders to stake for the longer term. While Ctypto.com itself has been experiencing growth and profitability, the Cronos Network has seen its price decline.

About CRO

CRO is the utility token for Crypto.com, run on the Cronos blockchain. Cronos has undergone many improvements to its EVM chain over the years, resulting in fast and low-cost transactions. But Cronos consists of two chains, the proof of stake chain and the EVM chain. The PoS chain serves to secure the network through validators. But it lacks any smart contract capabilities.

The Cronos EVM chain is where most of the action is happening, at least where most of the action should be happening. The price of Cronos has been declining, which is reflected in lower transaction volume. Other metrics such as utilization and transaction fees aren't the best indicators as upgrades have made the chain faster and less costly, which reduces those metrics.

Both Crypto.com and Cronos have received criticism and backlash over a decision to re-mint 70 billion tokens that had been burnt, bringing the maximum supply back up to 100 billion. The re-minted tokens were placed in escrow and are being slowly released. The main intent of the re-mint was to make Cronos ready to participate in the RWA market. The amount of the re-mint was to put Cronos in the league with other blockchains such as XRP, which also has a 100 billion token maximum supply.

The result of the re-mint has been a loss of trust by the community, often referring to themselves as Crofam.

Big Changes On The Way

The Cronos blockchain has some big changes coming as a result of the relaunch of its mobile app, the Cronos App. Under new leadership, the app is developing a business model that would allow the network to do buybacks and burns. In addition, the new app promises to provide greater utility with perpetuals trading, stock trading, and crypto swaps. Much of that is already available through dApps. The new app intends to integrate the dApp services into the background to simplify the user experience.

The Cronos App is currently in Beta testing and will soon be available as a general release.

The Cronos development team has their job cut out for them in regaining the trust of users and making the blockchain profitable at the protocol level and for users.

Opportunity

The new locked CRO staking terms offer an opportunity for value investors. Although many CRO holders prefer to keep their CRO liquid so that they can sell their position at the first pump. There are still some, like me, who quietly and slowly have been building up our CRO bags and staking.

The price of CRO has been at the 0.05 USD range for weeks. This has offered plenty of opportunity to buy at a steep discount. In addition, staking rewards and Crypto.com debit card cash back rewards have also contributed to accumulating more CRO.

Personally, I have two goals for my CRO. First, I want to upgrade my debit card one tier, which offers a higher cash back reward and also pays out staking rewards from the locked up CRO. Presently, I am at the Level Up Plus tier. The next tier up is the Level Up Pro. The second goal is to build up my own CRO treasury through staking.

The rough plan is to maintain a 10,000 CRO stake in flexible staking for faster access to upgrade the debit card. Anything over 10,000 CRO will go into the 4 year lockup for higher staking rewards. While many others would be wary of locking up their CRO for such a long term, my interest is not in selling the tokens at the first pump. Rather, the higher staking rewards would lay the foundation of fixed income over the long term.

One side-effect of CRO in the 0.05 USD range is that my average cost has been declining. As of today, my average cost is $0.08434. With each staking reward and cash back reward, that average cost keeps decreasing. Theoretically, I could lock up CRO for 10 years and double my holdings. The "free" rewards tokens would drive down average cost to about half.

Risks

There are risks to this strategy. The main risk is that the price of CRO keeps declining. I could end up accumulating a token that doesn't hold its value. I don't think the price will go to zero. There is actual utility for the token with Crypto.com and the Cronos App. Furthermore, the protocol buy and burns would have some long-term benefit. CRO will find a bottom. I'd feel less confident if the maximum supply would grow indefinitely, except it's fixed.

Another risk is that the 11.44% yield doesn't hold. In that case, I'll have to make a decision in 4 years.

I'm not concerned about hacking risk as the staking is at the protocol level through validators. If I were picking my own validators, I'd risk slashing penalties. But in this case, I'd be staking in the Crypto.com main app, which pools all staking into multiple validators, which spreads out the risk.

The biggest risk is getting locked out of my Crypto.com account. As loud as the self-custody crowd is, there is risk in self-custody as well.

At present, it seems rational for long-term holders like me take advantage of the higher yield from staking CRO for four years. If I were more of a trader, I would likely choose shorter term staking or keep my CRO liquid. I think the reason CRO price is in the tank is largely because it attracted traders rather than hodlers. The higher yield and upcoming changes to the Cronos App could serve to balance things out with more long term hodlers, resulting in higher price. There is no way of knowing for certain. But having a long time horizon, makes the decision to use the longer term staking easier.