When Crypto.com restructured its loyalty stack to Level Up in early September 2025, it did more than just rename its rewards page. We've reimagined the way exchanges acquire customers. Level Up bundles trading, card, and cash yield benefits into one tiered membership, which you can access by paying a subscription or locking your CRO for a period of time. Headline: Eligible members trade select cryptocurrencies and stocks with zero trading fees. This is a clear, consumer-friendly promise that also serves a strategic purpose.
What is leveling up actually?
At the core of leveling up is a unified benefits program. Instead of scattered promotions and separate card-by-card staking schemes, Crypto.com has brought most of its consumer benefits under one roof and made them available through two routes: a monthly/annual subscription, or a CRO lockup that grants equal (or more) benefits for 12 months.
Levels range from Basic (free) to Plus, Pro, and VIP-style private levels. Each step increases your trading limit, card cashback paid in CRO, and cash yield.
- Plus ($4.99 per month): Zero transaction fees up to $20,000 per month. For cash, the annual interest rate is 4.5%. You will receive 2.0% cryptocurrency back on the amount spent on your card. 0% foreign exchange fee.
- Pro ($29.99 per month): Zero transaction fees up to $50,000 per month. For cash, the annual interest rate is 5%. You will receive 3.0% cryptocurrency back on the amount spent on your card. 0% foreign exchange fee.
- Private ($50,000 or $500,000 per year): The CRO Lockup Tier (12 Month Lockup) offers the highest card cashback (4-6% back), 5.0% annual cash, and additional CRO Lockup Rewards (8.5%-9.5% CRO Lockup Rewards at indicated thresholds). Private also mentions “unlimited trading volume” and additional benefits of VIP style.
Landing pages and local help pages highlight that specific availability, pricing, and features are subject to local jurisdiction, publishing partner, and product terms.
Featured Headline Benefits
If you use Crypto.com regularly, it's actually easy to use the revolutionary features.
- Zero transaction fees: There are no trading fees for monthly trading volume allowance (depending on tier) or unlimited trading volume at private level, which can significantly reduce costs for active traders.
- Card benefits paid in CRO: Plus and Pro offer multiple percentage back rates on card spend (the site lists examples of 2% to 3% for paid tiers and up to 4 to 6% for private lockup tiers).
- cash yield: Crypto.com advertises a market-competitive APY on idle fiat balances (site displays up to 5% APY on cash).
- Earn CRO Staking Yield and Bonuses: Staking under the Level Up umbrella comes with enhanced CRO rewards and additional APY for fixed period allocations of private level lockups. Certain configurations offer up to 9.5% CRO with 12-month lock-in.
These benefits are useful, but they are also conditional. Exact cashback percentages, cash APYs, and zero-fee limits vary by country and selected tier.
Why Crypto.com Levels Up
Three pragmatic champions explain this change. First, it's simple. Consolidating dozens of promotions into one product makes your marketing and user experience cleaner. The second is token utility. Providing benefits through subscriptions or CRO lockups incentivizes users to hold on to their CROs and supports token economics as adoption grows.
Third, recurring revenue: Subscriptions diversify a company's income from volatile trading fees. This combination is textbook product and token thinking. We aim to be attractive to users while being in harmony with corporate economics.
Practical trade-offs for users
Leveling up is not something that can be obtained unconditionally. There are trade-offs. If you're an active trader or frequent card user, zero-fee trading and CRO cashback can generate real, tangible savings that outweigh the modest monthly fees and opportunity costs of CRO lockups.
However, for casual users, the calculation may be reversed. The risks of subscription fees and 6-12 month token lock-ups can easily outweigh the potential rewards. There are also legacy frictions. Users who had old CRO lockups and perks removed reported confusion and, in some cases, reduced perks during the transition to level up.
That sentiment has surfaced in community threads on places like Reddit and in social discussions since its release. If you were already receiving benefits on the older model, be sure to read the transition FAQ and regional terms.
Promotions and early adopter incentives
Crypto.com didn't just flip a switch. Driven launch promotions including subscriber reward pools, CRO award campaigns, and limited-time bonuses tied to sign-ups and referrals. These promotions are especially advantageous for new members during the first month or two, which is probably intentional. Short-term upturns cause people to try the product and (hopefully) continue using it.
How to decide (simple checklist)
If you're considering joining Level Up, take a short and specific test.
- Estimate your monthly card spending and annualize the CRO cash back you can earn at a level you can realistically keep.
- Estimate your monthly trading volume and how much you can save with zero-fee trading.
- Compare these two benefits to the subscription or opportunity cost and risk of locking in your CRO for 12 months.
- If you're a legacy user, check out your region's level-up page and migration FAQ. Numbers vary by market.
Simply put, if the combined savings of trading + card + cash yield exceeds the cost of the subscription/lockup within a reasonable period of time, it's worth leveling up.
final thoughts
Level Up is a clear and intelligent product evolution. It simplifies Crypto.com's vast perks, brings to the fore a compelling promise for consumers (zero trading fees), and connects more value to CRO holdings. This is a great product design for an exchange that also operates tokens. But at the same time, choice (subscribe vs. stake) is reintroduced, creating transition friction for existing users who feel they have lost something in the transition.
