Spending cryptocurrencies in India is not easy. No merchants accept it. Periodically, the regulators keep reminding us that it is not an approved legal tender in India. There can be an intermediary who converts your crypto to INR and passes on to the merchant. However, merchants in India are unwilling to partner with them as well, given that they have to show they accept crypto. But all is not lost, as there is one more way to buy stuff with Crypto in India – Gift Cards.
Pay Crypto, buy a gift card of the merchant of your choice, pay the merchant using the gift card and merchant never has to know you theoretically bought goods or services with crypto.
We recently reported the launch of Crypto.com in India and listing of their MCO and CRO tokens on CoinDCX, opening up channels to buy those directly with INR. Crypto.com launched Gift cards in India recently as well.
In this article we show how to buy a gift card on Crypto.com and also pick up a Cashback reward while doing so.
We will buy a Rs. 1000 Gift card of Flipkart from Crypto.com which gives a 2.5%-5% cashback for these transactions if purchased with their native token CRO. But first, lets see what other merchants are there on the app.
Contents
Merchants on Crypto.com
Crypto.com gift cards aren’t new to the world, they are to Indian users. There are several merchant gift cards available on the app across the world. In India, the merchants as of now are limited but ranges from retail, shopping to entertainment. Personally, I’d like to see iTunes and Play Store gift cards soon.
Some of the gift cards you can buy in India include Flipkart, Big Bazaar, BookMyShow, ClearTrip, Lifestyle, MakeMytrip, PVR, etc. Here’s a full list.
Not only this, but since Crypto.com is an international app, users can actually buy gift cards that are usable in other countries too. There are several countries available on the app like Australia, US, Singapore, Canada, Italy and many more. See if you can catch them all in the gif below.
Steps to Buy A Gift Card on Crypto.com
Users can buy Gift cards on the app with BTC, ETH, LTC, XRP or CRO. CRO is the native token on Crypto.com. Buying with CRO is beneficial as users get 2.5% reward/cashback on the spent amount. It can be 5% in certain cases if the user is staking CRO on the platform.
There are few easy steps to follow once you have deposited cryptocurrency into the Crypto.com wallet.
- Click the option to “Pay” on the app then select “Gift Cards”.
- Pick a merchant from recent purchases or click on “Shop Now” to head to the gift card section.
- By Default “India” is selected as the country, you can change it for an adventure.
- Click on the Merchant for which you wish to buy the gift card (I picked Flipkart).
- Select the amount – Rs. 100, Rs. 250, Rs. 500, or Rs. 1000 and click on “Pay”.
- Choose the Cryptocurrency you wish to pay with and click “Continue to Review”.
- Review it, and “Confirm”.
- Enter the Passcode or pin for the app.
- The gift card is purchased. You will receive a Reward if paid in CRO.
- You can view the gift card in “My gift Card” Section from Step 2. You will also receive an email with the details. Now, go shopping.
Verifying the Gift Card
I now possess Flipkart gift card worth Rs. 1000 along with two more gift cards worth Rs. 100 each I purchased before writing this article to try out the platform. The cat was out of the bag from the above screenshot where my balance says Rs. 1200.
How do I validate if the gift card I just purchased is legit? By going to the merchant site.
In this case, I opened up my Flipkart account and “Added a gift card”. I entered the Card number and Pin, and voila, it was added. Of course if you purchased the gift card to actually gift it to someone, you have to ask that person to add the card to her flipkart wallet.
Is it worth buying Gift Cards using Crypto?
Now that we know we can spend crypto to pay for stuff in India, the real question is whether or not would I want to do that?
The answer is simple. Do you have crypto that instead of holding, you wish to spend? Then go for it.
There may be times when the Crypto value you are spending is not exactly the same as the gift card value you receive. But the difference of 1-3% should hardly matter if the purpose is to spend cryptocurrency that you already have.
We don’t advise buying crypto and then spending it for gift cards right away. It would not make sense unless the 2.5% to 5% cashback is actually keeping you in profit. Keep the INR rates of crypto in mind while doing so.
If you hold cryptocurrency and wish to gift someone or yourself a gift card, do it here. The Crypto.com app is easy to use and there are many other features on them besides the gift cards which are lucrative as well.
Get $50 reward by joining Crypto.com and staking MCO tokens.
Would you buy a gift card with Cryptocurrencies? Let us know in the comments below.
Disclaimer: Coin Crunch partners with multiple projects for consulting and marketing initiatives. Our editorial however remains uninfluenced by our partners unless specifically mentioned. For more details about our policies, please check out this disclaimer.
Note: This article contains affiliate links. Coin Crunch writers and authors earn various commission when our readers register and use the products using links on our articles.
Be First to Comment