Monolith Review – A Thorough Look At This DeFi Platform

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By Austin DeNoce

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Monolith Review

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Monolith Review

  • Wallet
  • Visa Debit Card
  • Fees
  • Customer Support
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Summary

Monolith is a decentralized financial platform built on the Ethereum blockchain. This platform allows users to buy, store, spend, send, and swap crypto using a dedicated Monolith Visa debit card. Monolith also includes a wallet that supports over 120 crypto assets as well as their own ERC-20 token called TKN. Learn more about this DeFi platform by reading our complete Monolith review.

Pros

  • No gas fees when spending on debit card
  • Support over 100 ERC-20 tokens
  • No top-up fee for TKN/DAI
  • Non-custodial wallet

Cons

  • Monolith card is only for Europe and a handful of select regions
  • Not currently allowing new sign-ups
  • Only supports Ethereum-based tokens
  • High fees (including capital gains tax from debit card purchases)

About Monolith

Monolith (Token Group Limited) is a European-based decentralized financial platform built on the Ethereum blockchain that allows users to buy, store, send, swap, and spend crypto with their own Visa debit Monolith card they issue.

While Monolith has a website, all of its services are managed through its mobile app, which you can find on both the app and google play stores.

Monolith’s services are available to those in the United Kingdom and nearly all of the broader European Economic Area; however, due to their popularity and rising Ethereum network fees, they have temporarily suspended new sign-ups. 

If you want to learn all about Monolith’s services, their debit card, and whether you should be rushing to open a Monolith account, stick around for this in-depth review.

Monolith Wallet

The Monolith wallet supports over 120 crypto assets, including Ethereum, TKN (Monolith’s community token), and over 100 ERC-20 tokens, so it does a great job of covering most of the Ethereum ecosystem and DeFi space. The wallet doesn’t, however, support any non-Ethereum-based assets.

Monolith Wallet

After downloading the Monolith app, you’ll be prompted to create a pin and then be given your 12-word seed phrase for your DeFi wallet, meaning it is a non-custodial wallet. 

When dealing with a non-custodial wallet, it’s always important to remember to keep a copy of your seed phrase, so you don’t lose any of your assets.

Once your wallet is set up, you can receive ERC-20 tokens via QR code or by copy-pasting your wallet address, just like any other crypto wallet. 

Monolith Wallet Receive

You can also buy ETH or DAI that deposits straight into your wallet with the Monolith card once you’ve completed the card activation process.

Monolith Buy/Swap Crypto

If you’re familiar with crypto wallets, you’ll find the Monolith wallet to be relatively standard and easy to use, but there are no bells or whistles that make it stand out the way something like an Exodus wallet does.

Monolith Visa Debit Card

To activate your Monolith card, you’ll need to complete all the steps outlined in the card section of the app, including identify verification. 

Monolith Card App

Once you’ve completed all those steps, your Monolith card should arrive in the mail between five and fifteen days.

The Monolith debit card is supported in a number of countries worldwide (mostly Europe) and accepted wherever Visa is accepted, which is over 45 million locations. It will also work with Paypal, Curve, and Google Pay. 

Monolith Card

Monolith offers a card for two different fiat currencies. They have a GBP crypto card specifically for the UK and a EUR crypto card available in all 30 countries of the European Economic Area.

There are no monthly fees, activation fees, or domestic purchase fees for the Monolith card, but there is a 1.75% International purchase fee, which applies to the Europe Monolith card when used in the UK and vice versa.

If you want to exchange any fiat currency for crypto to add to your Monolith card, there is a 2.95% fee, a €2,250 daily limit, €7,000 weekly limit, €20,000 monthly limit, and €50,000 yearly limit. 

There is also a €250 minimum purchase, but Monolith pays for all Ethereum gas fees, which is a huge saver when constantly transacting on the Ethereum network.

Monolith Security

As far as security goes, the Monolith card is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority; it is not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS). 

Monolith ensures that any funds you receive are held in a segregated account, so in the unlikely event that Contis Financial Services Ltd becomes insolvent, your funds will be protected against claims made by creditors.

Monolith App Settings

Monolith TKN

TKN is Monolith’s community ERC-20 token that allows TKN holders to share in the success of the Monolith card.

Every time you add money to the Monolith card with a token other than TKN (or DAI), a 1% card top-up fee is charged and sent to the Community Chest, a series of asset smart contracts on the blockchain, so there is a slight incentive to use TKN (or DAI) instead.

TKN holders can claim a share of the Community Chest at any time using Monolith’s Cash & Burn mechanism.

To buy TKN, you will first have to top up your card with crypto and then use the ‘swap’ function in the app to exchange it for TKN.

Monolith Customer Support

If you’re having trouble understanding how Monolith works, it has a very average but useful help center to walk you through all its services. 

Monolith Customer Support Help Center

While the help center lacks pictures and exhaustive explanations, it does a great job covering all its bases and should be a helpful resource if you’re just getting started.

And if you can’t find what you need in the help center, you can also submit a support ticket directly to the Monolith team via email.

Monolith Customer Support Ticket

Conclusion: Monolith Review 

After conducting this Monolith review, it’s clear the Monolith card offers a useful service for crypto enthusiasts (provided you like to spend your crypto). Still, the limit to Ethereum-based assets makes it a bit niche.

And aside from the obvious critique of not supporting Bitcoin, it’s also a bit frustrating to see a 1% top-up fee slowly eat away at your crypto savings. It’s nice that they waive that fee for a stablecoin (DAI), but it’s still not ideal and is on the higher end if you compare it to average crypto trading fees.

The fiat-to-crypto exchanges are also relatively high (2.95%) if that’s something you plan on doing regularly, which doesn’t make Monolith all that ideal if you are looking for a way to consistently buy crypto.

All that being said, perhaps the most important critique is related to capital gains and the accounting nightmare selling crypto for every purchase with your crypto debit card would create, which is true of all crypto debit cards.

For these reasons, we would suggest satisfying your desire for any crypto cards by taking the credit route and focusing on ways to earn crypto, not spend it. 

There are plenty of crypto cards to accomplish this, most notably through BlockFi or Crypto.com, and your wallet and accountant will likely thank you for choosing them over any crypto debit cards.

All in all, Monolith has the right idea expanding on the financial services within the crypto space, but the fees, capital gains concerns, and semi-limited number of supported assets make it far from ideal.

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Austin DeNoce

Austin DeNoce is a writer, personal investor, and entrepreneur who is focused on trading and investing education for macro, crypto, equities, derivatives, and foreign exchange traders. He graduated from the University of California, Santa Barbara with a bachelor’s in philosophy and carries a deep passion for a first-principles approach to investing and education therein. Austin specializes in topics related to cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology.

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