Crypto.com cuts CRO lockup rewards again, continuing pattern of broken promises

On Thursday, Crypto.com is cutting annual rewards for new CRO lockups by at least a quarter.

For those holding Crypto.com's native token, this is just the newest setback in a drawn-out saga of shifting roadmaps, revised promotions, and unmet commitments by the company and its earlier incarnation, Monaco.

Starting September 10, CRO holders in the "Obsidian/Private" tier will see lockup rewards fall to 6% from 9%, while "Icy/Rose/Private" tier drops to 5% from 8.5%, and "Jade/Indigo/Pro" tier goes to 3% from 4%.

This latest reduction extends a long list of unwelcome announcements that have built up over time.

Over the years, CRO leadership has repeatedly reversed previous promises, lowered payouts, and disadvantaged retail investors to favor institutional partners.

Retail investors, in fact, endured triple-digit inflation in the token supply as part of an effort to "Make America the world capital of crypto."

For perspective, CRO's price has fallen 75% in the last twelve months, partly due to that initiative and other setbacks from Crypto.com.

Following roadmap shifts, expired promotions, layoffs, and other events meant to tidy up the CRO ecosystem, CRO's price has dropped since November 2021 and is still 93% below its peak from nearly five years back.

Additionally, Crypto.com's Cronos blockchain wiped out a few hours of transaction data today, still grappling with basic infrastructure reliability.

Ever since Monaco’s whitepaper, the terms have kept changing

Monaco, the company that later became Crypto.com, originally sold MCO, the token that later turned into CRO, backed by an "asset contract" financed through a 1% charge on specific Monaco Card purchases.

Token holders could even burn MCO to get a proportional slice of that asset contract, a setup meant to tie redemption value to revenue.

By the end of 2017, Monaco had taken that contract off its roadmap, blaming regulatory shifts. It boosted the Monaco Card cashback rate to up to 2% as a separate form of compensation, even as it backed away from the original token economics.

On November 20, 2018, Crypto.com declared 60 monthly CRO airdrops for qualifying MCO holders, meant to run for five years. But those airdrops stopped early in June 2019, about seven months into the schedule, and the leftover tokens were assigned elsewhere.

Over 50 of those promised monthly payouts to MCO holders never materialized.

In 2020, Crypto.com urged MCO holders to switch their blockchain contracts to CRO, and afterwards no longer supported any MCO that had not been swapped.

While the MCO token continued to exist on Ethereum in a technical sense, its utility backed by the company did not.

Lower and lower Crypto.com card rates

Subsequently, in May 2022, Crypto.com reduced cashback rates for cardholders and initially intended to remove all card staking rewards once the 180-day lockup periods ended.

After facing criticism over that complete cut, the company reinstated lesser rewards within a few days and let current users keep their previous rates until expiration.

Perks kept getting smaller. Back in 2020, Crypto.com promoted rebates with Airbnb, Expedia, and Amazon Prime for its top card levels.

By 2025, Crypto.com stated it would drop those providers from rewards for Icy, Rose, and Obsidian tier customers. It also took away the 1% and 2% non-staking spending rewards on cards issued before November 6, 2024.

Airport lounge access followed a similar path.

In September 2025, Crypto.com limited lounge access to customers who had an active CRO lockup, stake, or annual subscription. This month, it cut annual visits in half for Pro users and ended free guest access for Private tiers in most regions.

Finally and most significantly, Crypto.com spearheaded a move to un-burn CRO tokens.

In February 2021, Crypto.com announced and started a 70 billion CRO burn program, describing it as a move toward full decentralization.

In 2025, the Crypto.com-affiliated Cronos outlined a plan to re-mint those 70 billion CRO into a "Strategic Reserve," completely reversing the burn.

As noted, on Thursday, Crypto.com is lowering rewards rates on new CRO lockups by at least 25%.