Compare AQRU vs Crypto.com

Crypto withdrawls on AQRU are not instant. They are processed daily at 2pm UTC. This means that if you make a withdrawl request at 3pm UTC you will have to wait until 2pm UTC the next day before it is processed. Once withdrawl requests begin processed at 2pm UTC they normally seem to complete by 3pm UTC in our experience.

If you have yoru funds invested in one of AQRU's investment products you will first need to withdraw your funds back in to your AQRU crypot wallet by selling the investment product. Only then can you make a withdrawl request to an external wallet.

Crypto withdrawls also attract fees. There is a $10 USD fee for Bitcoin withdrawls and a $20 USD fee for all other crypto withdrawls. There is no fee for fiat withdrawls.

There is no record of AQRU undertaking a blanket freeze of withdrawls across the platform. Some users have experienced delays in withdrawls as AQRU has been obliged to to ask further questions about the transfer to comply with its regulatory obligations.

Withdrawals on Crypto.com are completely automatic and run 24 hours per day. This means that withdrawals are generally very efficicent and in our tests withdrawals were completed in under an hour.

Withdrawals do attract fees, which are generally speaking around $10 USD.

Crypto.com allows you to whitelist external wallet addresses, meaning that funds can only be withdrawn to these addresses. There is also a feature to lock new whitelisted addresses for 24 hours, so that they do not become active until 24 hours after they were setup.

AQRU stores its uninvested crypto with a third party custodian, Fireblocks, which ensures that these funds are well protected against loss due to hacking and fraud. In addition AQRU has insurance of $30 million against crypto losses.

AQRU has implemented two factor authentication within it's app to increase security levels.

What remains unclear is AQRU's investment strategy that is uses to generate yield. AQRU launched with market leading interest rates on its savings accounts which suggests that a higher level of risk was being taken with its internal investment strategy. Having said this, AQRU has now significantly reduced its savings rates and AQRU has never frozen withdrawls or suffered any outage or loss of customer funds.

AQRU have stated that they lend funds to institutions in return for yield. AQRU states that they usually demand collateralisation on thse loans. The level of collateralisation is not stated, and it is concerning if some of their loans are not fully collateralised. Ideally they would be requiring well over 100% over-collateralisation on all loans so that in all circumstances AQRU holds sufficient assets to repay the loan in the event of a default by the borrower.

AQRU offers a blended stablecoin investment product. This product invests in USDC, DAI and some other stablecoins which are not stated. Diversifying the fund across a number of stablecoins reduces risk, but the lack of full transparancy means there could be some high risk coins included.

AQRU offers enhanced savings ratings on USDC deposits when locked up for a 90 day term. This is through a deal with Maple Finance. AQRU provide a detailed run down of this deal here. The article discusses Maple Finance's risk management strategy, including the diversification and overcollateralisation of loans made by Maple. However, the managed underwriting of some loans is also discussed, which presumably adjusts collateral requirements depending on the credit status of the borrower. There is a separate fund that can be called upon in the case of borrower defaults. Overall AQRU and Maple are offering a good level of transparency on how their lending strategy works. However in the event of large number of depositors making withdrawal requests, it is possible that liquidity could still be an issue.

Some crypto platforms can provide proof of reserves prepared by a third party. This proof of reserves proves that the platform holds more assets than customer liabilities. AQRU does not currently provide proof of reserves, but hopefully this is something that they will look to implement in the future.

Overall, AQRU is a young platform backed by a solid, experienced team. They have a simple model and appear to be aiming for transparency. As the platform continues to grow we expect further reasurances on their investment strategy will be provided.

All key activites on the Crypto.com are secured by multi-factor authentication including face ID and 2 factor authentication codes. In addition Crypto.com has passed multiple security audits including ISO 22301:2019, ISO/IEC 27701:2019, ISO/IEC 27001:2013 and PCIDSS v3.2.1 Level 1 compliance. The app has achieved the highest security rating for both NIST Cybersecurity and Privacy Frameworks. Finally Crypto.com contracts with third party security firms such as Kudelski Security to stress test their systems.

Crypto.com claims that 100% of user crypto deposits are held offline in cold storage wallets. These wallets are secured by cold storage custodian Ledger Vault. Crypto.com also hold $750M of insurance against loss of these assets.

All fiat deposits are held in Metropolitan Commercial Bank and are covered by FDIC insurance up to $250k USD.

Crypto.com is a substantial and complex business with activity in almost every aspect of Crypto. They have hugely ambitious plans and an experienced team behind them. How all of Crypto.com's various activities and subsidiaries connect together financially is not clear and the extent to which failure in one part of the business could have implications in other areas is also a concern. The method that Crypto.com uses to generate yield on their earn product is not clear, and so we can not be certain of the level of risk they are taking to generate customer returns. We can take some reassurance from Crypto.com's commitment to holding 100% of user deposits in cold storage.

We were not able to find any proof of reserves for Crypto.com. Proof of reserves are normally carried out by an external third party and provide assurance that the company has enough assets to pay out all customer liabilities (deposits) if required.