Last night on X, Cronos announced Cronos One, a gateway to help users onboard to the Cronos ecosystem. While Crypto.com (referal code 78qq6kx6q8) boasts more than 150 Million users, many of those have mostly used the mobile app. Those who tend towards the crypto degen side of the spectrum have also explored the Onchain wallet. And then there is the matter of connecting the app to their wallet. It's not exactly user-friendly. Cronos One changes all that by making it easier to link the app to your Cronos wallet.
Why Connect Crypto.com App to Onchain Wallet?
You might be wondering what advantage there is to connecting the Crypto.com app to the Onchain wallet. In short, it's convenient for storing your crypto off the exchange and for engaging in DeFi. When you figure out how to connect the app to your wallet, a convenient link makes it easy to transfer your cryptos out from the app to the wallet without having to bother copying and pasting addresses or scanning QR codes.
But then you also have to link the wallet back to the app to make it easy to use your account for purchases, or transfer back to the exchange. And you have to do this on every device on which you install their Onchain Wallet. Again, it's not obvious how to do these things or why you should do it if you are a casual user of Crypto.com.
Casual users would typically stay within the app and not participate in DeFi. Cronos One simplifies this for users who might not otherwise bother reading the help documentation.
Cronos One is not exactly game-changing for advanced users who had already linked the app to their wallet, and vice versa. Although, there is something that even seasoned users would appreciate, easier topping up of the Crypto.com debit card from the Onchain wallet.
Topping up your Crypto.com debit card has been possible for a while using Cronos zkEVM. But the Cronos zkEVM chain has mostly been the realm of advanced users. It's challenging enough to get people to self-custody and do DeFi on the simpler Cronos EVM chain. But now, with Cronos One, users can self custody and also top up their cards from Cronos EVM too.
Topping Up Your Debit Card
Cronos One makes it easy to top up your debit card directly from the Cronos EVM chain. The Cronos One gateway has a page that allows you to select any of your Onchain holdings to top up your card. In the background, the mechanism swaps your crypto into USDC, then uses that USDC to top up your card.
Prior to Cronos One, you'd have to transfer your crypto from the Onchain wallet to the Crypto.com app. Then you could top up the card using your crypto within the app, assuming it is a supported token. Ironically, it is impossible for me to use USDC to top up my debit card from within the app due to regulations. I would have to sell USDC to cash or swap it for something else to be able to top up my card using crypto. The USDC restriction does not apply to the Onchain wallet.
In short, Cronos One introduces a great convenience by connecting your self-custody wallet directly to your Crypto.com debit card.
I was recently excited to get an Ether.fi credit card (referral code fccca029) for precisely this reason, added convenience of spending from a self-custody wallet. With Ether Fi, I could borrow against my cryptos rather than spend them without having to do DeFi gymnastics.
Similarly, topping up with Cronos One simplifies matters such that I could borrow against my cryptos on a platform like Tectonic.finance. No need to sell.
Limitation of Cronos One
The greatest limitation of Cronos One is that it is only meant to work with the Cronos blockchain. Fortunately, they also link to bridges to help users import to Cronos from other blockchains. In case you're wondering why use Cronos at all, I should remind you that Cronos is based on the Cosmos blockchain. As such, it is highly interoperable with Cosmos, which is a blockchain that set out to also work with every other blockchain.
Coinbase does something similar with the Base blockchain, which is interoperable with other Ethereum-based blockchains. Whereas Base benefits from the liquidity from the Coinbase exchange, Cronos benefits from the liquidity from the Crypto.com exchange. There is a greater limitation for Base in that Coinbase only accepts Ethereum-based CRO, while Crypto.com integrates Base into their exchange.
Ether.fi Comparison
Ether.fi makes banking on-chain simple in that they offer the option to have fiat direct deposited into your account. The deposits automatically convert to USDC. And within the Ether.fi wallet, you can swap to other collateral. You can spend your USDC directly using the Ether.fi credit card; or, you can set the account to Borrow Mode to borrow against your deposits.
Similarly, it is possible to direct deposit cash into the Crypto.com wallet, where it remains as cash rather than convert to USDC. Once you have linked the Crypto.com Onchain wallet to the app, that cash balance is directly available for crypto purchases within the Onchain wallet, eliminating a transfer between wallets. And now you can directly top up the debit card without having to manually do all the intermediate steps of conversions and transfers.
Still, Cronos One falls short of Ether Fi in that your credit on Cronos is separate rather than integrated. I suppose signing up for the Crypto.com credit card, rather than the debit card, might balance things out. If you think you'll carry a balance on the credit card, you could always pay it off with DeFi credit at a much lower interest rate.
In My Opinion
My recent venture into Ether Fi has now been somewhat deflated. The convenience of Ether Fi is less pronounced now that my Cronos EVM wallet can top up my Crypto.com debit card directly. However, this doesn't mean that it was all for nothing. Now I have the option to more easily do my crypto finances through both Ethereum and Cronos.
Both options offer fewer steps for borrowing against my crypto. Before Ether Fi or Cronos One, it would involve depositing, borrowing, transferring, and then converting to fiat. Each step introduces slippage and transaction fees. And you repeat the same in reverse to repay the loan. As much as the crypto community lords it over traditional finance how much cheaper it is to transfer value on a blockchain, we mostly live in a fiat world. This requires us to perform all kinds of costly gymnastics to move value between crypto and fiat.
Therefore, Cronos One brings Crypto.com and Cronos users closer to banking on-chain in the same way Ether Fi does for Ethereum. While the Cronos One gateway isn't earth shattering in what it offers, it does move the Cronos community closer to banking on-chain more easily.