MCO’s Ruby Steel Visa Card

MCO’s Ruby Steel Visa Card

Launching with a $26.7 million ICO in 2017, MCO has just begun shipping out their Visa cards to the US. They are much more than just a Visa Debit card, but there are some features (and lack of features) you should know about before diving in.

How Can I Get One?

Simple! You can get a MCO Visa Card through this link (my referral code is “y6zewknlt8” — we’ll both get $50 of MCO when you use it), but don’t get too excited just yet, as the card requires both KYC and a 6 month MCO stake to get most of the card benefits (my card required a 50 MCO 6 month stake, which cost about $100 at the time of staking, and is worth about $220 at time of writing). However…I’d say it’s worth the wait and investment. Here’s why:

MCO Standout Features

5 different cards of varying material and benefit, depending on levels of MCO stake. More info here.

Cash back — each card comes with varying percentages of cash back on all purchases (the Ruby pictured above comes with 2% cash back)

Monthly credit towards Spotify, Netflix, Expedia, AirBnB, and airport lounge access, depending on the card you choose (the Ruby comes with $9.99 USD monthly Spotify credit)

All of these perks are absolutely mind blowing for a cryptocurrency-based Visa card, and arguably these perks are what make MCO’s Visa card worth the investment. There are a few more features the app offers that are worth mentioning too:

MCO’s Crypto.com App Features

Credit — while MCO isn’t the first crypto company to experiment with loans, the idea remains interesting. Using this service, you can put up Bitcoin as collateral and receive a USD loan. To me, this doesn’t make much sense, as there are easier ways of getting USD for your BTC (without interest).

Earn — a more attractive concept in my mind is MCO’s “Earn” program that allows you to lock up a cryptocurrency for a set amount of time and earn interest in that particular crypto (percentages vary based on length of term and amount of MCO staked). So, if I were to lock up some Bitcoin for 3 months with my current Ruby card MCO stake, I’d make about 8% (in BTC) per annum, paid out monthly. This option may be good for someone who doesn’t feel confident in accumulating Bitcoin through trading.

Pay — Crypto.com is working on making cryptocurrency payments mainstream. They want to make it simpler for shops to accept crypto (more info in the previous link), and they make it easy to top up gift cards with cryptocurrency to your favorite retail shop. On the home screen of the Crypto.com app, click “Pay” and then “Shop Now” to see all of the available stores.

Things You Should Know

There are a ton of amazing features that I love about my new Ruby Steel Card, but one major complaint I have is that I can’t actually spend my Bitcoin — I have to convert to USD first.

To use the Visa card, you have to regularly top it up, which you can do by either converting Bitcoin to USD, or through an in-app Fiat Wallet (which is essentially a way to electronically deposit from your bank to your wallet. This method can take 3–5 business days to clear, from what I have read).

In addition, MCO/Crypto.com is a custodial wallet, meaning that you don’t have access to your private keys. In crypto speak, this means that you are trusting MCO with your money instead of a traditional bank. Knowing this, it is important to consider how much money you hold on their app. Only keep crypto in such a wallet that you’re willing to lose completely.

Finally, I would say that the MCO card/app system is currently too complicated for those who are new to the cryptocurrency space. There are many different types of cryptocurrency available for use with the app (which is great for someone who knows what they’re doing), concepts such as “staking” aren’t easily understood, and honestly no one needs to “top up” their bank account (unless they’re unemployed).

My Verdict

All this being said, I’d give the MCO Ruby Steel Visa Debit Card a 3/5 rating, and I’d highly recommend that you try it out. There really aren’t that many companies shipping out crypto Visa debit cards at the moment, and MCO has the potential to dramatically improve.

If MCO introduced a non-custodial crypto wallet option, allowed for the spend of Bitcoin directly, and provided Bitcoin back rewards instead of MCO or cash, I’d give a much higher rating.