18 ways of making money with crypto
Are you looking to make money with cryptos? I know, stupid question - if you're into cryptos, that's what it is all about. At least that's true in part, in addition to the fact that cryptos are decentralized and somewhat anonymous compared to fiat money.
But did you know that there's not one, not two, but actually numerous ways you can make money with crypto?
I'm sure we could find a few more ways of cashing in, but for now I could come up with 18 different ways of making money with cryptocurrencies.
I have personally tried out roughly 10 of them.
1. Invest and HODL, HODL, HODL
Obviously, the most common way of making money with cryptos (and often also losing money short-term) is just buying and keeping them, buying some more, and still keeping them.
And so on.
You do it in hopes that the crypto value will eventually rise enough.
Until the price of any crypto has reached the level where you're finally happy to sell it.
2. Invest in coins early - find the hidden gems
There are numerous cryptocurrencies everyone are aware of - think Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Dogecoin (DOGE), Shiba Inu (SHIB). And for people who are just starting out in the crypto space - these are the coins they buy.
But if you're looking for hidden crypto gems, I would suggest you look for cryptocurrencies which are not that well known. Cryptos that are not popular yet. But cryptos that at least in your opinion have the potential to become popular.
Obviously you need to do a lot of research yourself in order to figure out the best cryptos to buy.
You can do research by first checking the cryptocurrency official website. Do they have a proper website in the first place? Do they provide enough info? Do they share info about their team? Does the cryptocurrency even have a point? Do they solve a problem? Does it provide an actual service, is it useful somehow? Is it different from the other thousand crytocurrencies?
Continue to do your research using Google, check their Twitter account, Reddit account (if it exists).
I have put together a bit longer guide on how to identify good altcoins.
Where can you find hidden crypto gems?
These days you can find them everywhere, even in Binance.
But you can find even better selection in some other cryptocurrency exchanges such as Gate.io. Considering Gate.io has 1400 cryptos available, there are a lot of little known cryptocurrencies with low trading volume and low market cap.
You can also find altcoins with good potential in different DEXes. Of course, you always need to be careful that you don't fall for some crypto scam.
3. Crypto bots - put them to work for you!
Crypto bots or cryptocurrency trading bots are sort of automated trading programs that help you make trades automatically. So in essence they help you earn passive income.
While using trading bots has become more popular in recent years, especially as many exchanges have started offering their own bots as well, they are still not that popular.
Does using a trading bot guarantee that you'll be making money with them? No. But they can help boost your income if used wisely.
What type of trading bots are there?
There are dozens of different trading bots out there, but the most popular ones are most likely the following:
- Smart Rebalance
- Grid bot
- Margin grid bots
- Futures grid Bot
Additionally there are also bots which trade based on technical indicators, arbitration bots and much more.
All of them can lose you money. But also make you money.
Based on my experience the bot with most potential is Smart Rebalance trading bot.
Smart Rebalance trading bot - what is it?
Smart Rebalance bot has X number of different cryptos in it. When creating one, you choose the cryptos and choose the proportion for each crypto.
For example you might say I want to always have 25% BTC in the bot, 25% ETH, 40% AGIX and 10% OCEAN in the bot.
When the prices of the cryptos change and the proportions are not what you set them anymore, the bot automatically rebalances the bot to always keep the proportions the same.
I have been running a dozen Smart Rebalance bot for roughly a year now (at the time of writing) and the amount of cryptos in my bots has increased by 116%. Keep in mind that I have not put any additional money in the bot, the increase in crypto amounts is the result of the rebalancing.
So you could say that I have more than doubled the amount of cryptos for free.
Of course, when you create a smart rebalance bot, you still need to make sure you only add good cryptos in it.
If even one of the cryptos in the bot is total scam and keeps losing value (for a good reason), your average crypto holdings might increase, but it means that the amount of other potentially good cryptos in that bot is going lower and the amount of the scam crypto goes up. And eventually this might pretty much deplete your bot.
But overall Smart Rebalance bot can be very good long-term.
You can see my Smart Rebalance bot case study here. I'm still updating the numbers, so feel free to check it weekly.
Where can you find trading bots?
There are various websites that offer you different types of trading bots. One of such sites is CryptoHopper.
But these days even well-known exchanges offer you a good selection of trading bots.
For example you can create your own trading bots using the following exchanges:
4. Earn from crypto bot copiers
This way of making money with cryptos is again related to trading bots, but in a different way.
Let's imagine you have created a trading bot that is earning you good money.
Now other people can copy your trading bot and pay you for the chance to do it.
In Gate.io you can set the percentage (5-30) your copiers need to pay you if they manage to make money with your bot.
If you have created the bot anyway, it's a good option to get some extra free money.
Obviously, people only copy bots that have already proven to make money. And competition is tough - there are lots of other bots competing your yours.
But I have seen bots where copiers have made hundreds of thousands of dollars. And the bot creator gets a percentage of that, anywhere between 5-30%.
If you're intrigued, go check out Gate.io and see their Copy Trading section.
5. Crypto pre-sale offers and take advantage of crypto startup offers
Sometimes crypto projects, before actually releasing their crypto token or getting listed in some crypto exchange, do pre-sales.
During crypto presales the prices are generally below market value.
Although, considering they are new projects, nobody really knows the real market value.
But independent of that you can get in on a crypto in the very beginning and for a potentially good price.
If you want to find good cryptos which are having a presale, just head to google and search for "crypto presale" and you should find a good number of options.
6. Crypto Exchange Welcome offers
Most crypto exchanges offer you some sort of welcome bonus when you join them.
But based on experience, you shouldn't be hoping for much here.
In most cases the welcome offers come in a form of trading fee rebates.
Sometimes you can also get cash for making a deposit of at least certain size, or completing tasks. Sometimes there are mystery boxes that can contain a huge surprise, but mostly it's cents.
You can see what the exchanges are offering on the exchanges page.
7. Crypto exchange campaigns
In addition to welcome bonuses exchanges also run various campaigns through which people can win money. In most cases they are trading competitions of sorts where the people with the biggest ROI or biggest trading volume or ... or ... can earn quite nice prizes.
8. Play-to-Earn crypto games
If you want free crypto, then play-to-earn games are a good way to go.
The more you play, the more missions you complete, the more you earn.
Keep in mind though that in many cases it's not free to start playing the game - sometimes you need to buy their cryptocurrency first, buy your character, and so on.
9. Crypto Staking
Another way to earn money with cryptos is to stake them.
What does it mean?
In layman's terms you lock a crypto for a timeframe and you'll be compensated for that.
The APR for that can be anywhere from 0.1% to even 1000%. Meaning that's how much extra you can earn from your cryptos dyring one year (if it was staked that long).
Most staking offers range between 2% and 20% though.
But independent of the exact persentage, staking is an easy way of earning some extra money with your existing cryptocurrencies while not risking with anything.
Where can you earn by staking your crypto?
Most crypto exchanges offer you at least some staking options. Among them you can check the following high volume exchanges:
10. Crypto loans
Another way to make money with your crypto is to lend your crypto out for interest. Most exchanges offer you this option and depending on the asset and time, you can normally earn from 2% to 200% per year.
Although in most cases the lending terms are actually short - think 7-30 days at a time.
What are best exchanges for crypto lending?
I would recommend these two low fee exchanges:
11. Crypto dividends
We all know what dividends are. It's a form of company's profit sharing.
And that also applies to cryptocurrencies.
Obviously, not all cryptocurrencies pay dividends, but there are many that do.
If you own stocks that pay dividends, the company pays out dividends based on how many shares you own.
Exactly the same applies to cryptocurrencies. The more of that crypto you hold, the more dividends you will get.
12. Running Cryptocurrency Master Nodes
This is something different from anything mentioned above. And definitely more technical. If you're not into it, just move on the the next point.
While it's a bit more difficult way or making money with cryptos than any of the previous options, the upside can be higher as well.
"Master nodes are part of the infrastructure that sustains cryptocurrencies and they verify new blocks and perform special roles in governing the blockchain. Master node operators are rewarded with guaranteed crypto earnings, usually a percentage of their stake." (Investpedia)
In order to become a master node operator you need to invest some money in the coins. I'll be honest, I have never run a masternode myself (although I might at some point), and I won't even try to claim a know a thing about it.So I recommend you study about the topic more yourself. Here's one source for you.
13. Learn & Earn
Masternodes...you need to learn abotut them before you can get started. But you can get paid for learning in another way as well.
Many exchanges have a learn & earn section where they offer you free cryptos for just reading a page or watching a video and then taking a short test about it.
This is a 100% free way of earning more cryptos.
Although you can't normally earn much with it, a few bucks for learning about a new crypto is more than a fair deal.
Where can you earn by learning?
Here are just a few recommended exchanges for beginners for you which offer learn & earn option:
There are also other sites besides exchanges where you can learn and earn. Just look around the internet and you'll find some more options.
14. Crypto Faucets - Earn crypto by completing simple tasks
How can you earn money with crypto faucets?
You can make money by performing tasks like testing the CAPCHAs, downloading the crypto app, watrching videos, answering questions in quizes, playing games. Just to mention a few ways you can make money with crypto faucets.
Be careful with such offers though and be sure to always do your own research to avoid scams and malware-filled websites.
How much money can you make with crypto faucets?
As the tasks are simple and you shouldn't expect high rewards. Each task will normally only give you cents.
15. Crypto airdrops
Another way to make money with cryptos is to take advantage of crypto airdrops.
Although an average airdrop is only worth a few bucks, sometimes you can get a lot more as well.
Crypto airdrops is a way for crypto projects to distribute their crypto tokens to recipients for free (or for a reduced fee).
Not just everyone can receive a free crypto airdrop. As a rule of thumb there's a set of requirements that have to be met first.
The requirements can include holding a certain amount of the crypto, joining their social media channel, or doing something else.
What else can you do to give yourself better chance of receiving an airdrop?
The keyword here is airdrop farming.
Airdrop Farming - Getting ready for a potential airdrop
What can you do to give yourself more chance of getting an airdrop?
Airdrop farming is a set of actions you can take to either meet the airdrop requirements or to give yourself a chance to increase higher amount of free coins.
Often it means that you help blockchain project test their environments - test their trading platform on their testnets. Or trade on their mainnets for real.
Where can I find potential airdrops and more info
The easiest way could be following some Twitter users who are farming themselves. They often give you a step by step guide on how to farm any specific potential airdrop.
Here are just a couple of regular airdrop hunters you should follow:
Aridrop farming can often be done for potential airdrops. And farming airdrops doesn't guarantee there will certainly be an airdrop or that you'll be able to receive an airdrop.
16. Crypto trading
You might have already thought I forgot it, but no. Obviously you can make money with cryptocurrencies simply by trading them as well.
The idea behind is simple - you buy low and you sell high. Thus making money from the difference.
Obviously, if you don't know much about crypto trading, charts, etc, etc, trading is also an easy way to lose money instead of making money.
If you want to be a profitable crypto trader, you actually need to put a lot of time into it to gain the knowledge and experience required to be a profitable trader.
Even when it comes to "just" trading cryptos, there are many different ways of trading cryptos.
Just to mention a few:
- Spot Trading
- Margin Trading
- Futures Trading
- Arbitrage Trading
17. NFTs - flip them! Or create your own
If you're into cryptos, you have definitely heard of NFTs. But how can you make money with them?
Let's look into a few ways.
- Mint your own NFTs. The most straightforward way to make money with NFTs is to create your own NFTs and sell them. What kind of NFT? There are a number of options, but just to mention a few of them - digital art NFTs, photo NFTs, music NFTs, gamified NFTs (in-game assets like characters, skins, weapons), avatars, memorabilia, NFTs with some actual utility. These days it's not that complicated to get started - there are many quite simple beginners guides available. But the hard part here is to create NFTs that people actually want to buy.
- Flip them! Another way of making money with NFTs is to trade them. Buy low and sell high. The most popular place to do it right now is Opensea. Other popular NFT marketplaces are Mirror World, Rarible, AtomicMarket and Foundation. And you can even use Binance to trade NFTs.
- Play and earn. There are numerous play-to-earn games which have also incorporated NFTs. This means that if you manage to develop a winning character there, you might be able to sell it.
18. Mining
Mining is another popular way to make money with cryptos. One might even say it's the most popular one, but I have a feeling it's slowly changing.
If you want to start mining cryptocurrencies, you can expect to put some cash out upfront.
That's because you will need good dedicated mining rig (computer), software, membership to a mining pool. And of course, keep in mind you also need to pay for electricity your mining rig consumes.
I won't stop on this topic more, but if you want to learn more about mining cryptos, click here to find out some more.
Extra tips
I hope you learned at least something new from all the above. Or if not that, maybe it helped to put your mind to work and you managed to figure out some extra ways of making with cryptocurrency yourself.
But before you go, I want to share a few more tips with you.
Now, these tips are not so much a way of making money, but limiting your losses.
Most important tip: Never fall in love with any one crypto!
Make money by not losing money
Obviously in crypto market it's not uncommon for the prices to go down 80% or even more.
In many cases what you want to do there is to keep buying the crypto for cheaper prices.
However, whenever you're thinking of doing such dollar-averaging, think.
Especially in case of lesser known altcoins.
Maybe there's a very good reason the price is down. Maybe the cryptocurrency isn't being developed anymore. Maybe the crypto is dead. Maybe it turned out the crypto was a scam in the first place.
Before you think about adding more money into the crypto, always do your research. Even if you've done it times before.
Things change.
Check their Twitter feed, Reddit subpages, take a look at their website. Try to figure out what's the state of the crypto.
I've been burned myself couple of times with badly researched cryptos.
Of course, you might still get burned with some altcoins, but at least try to make sure it won't happen because you were too lazy to do your research.
Diversify! Especially if you love altcoins!
You might love some altcoins a lot and migth want to put 90% of your money in that one. But things happen.
Remember Luna? Many people wish they didn't.
I know people who were very invested in that one and where buying it for HODLing, just because they really truly believed in it.
And it's good to invest in something if you truly believe in what they are trying to achieve.
But even then, diversification is a must.
I mean you don't have to. By the end of the day the decision is always up to you, but if you want to be on the safe side, it's highly recommended.
Keep it real - don't hope for impossible
We all hope to find the next 1000x gem. And that's ok.
But I've seen so many people saying they hope this or that crypto will go up 1000 times.
Hoping, but not thinking realisticly.
Either out of stupidity, or out blind hope.
There are many cryptos which do have the potential. But people mentioning Shiba Inu or Lunc - for them to go uop 1000x something catastophic would have to happen. I can't even image what it could be.
Why can't they go up 1000x?
Because for these two sample cryptos to go up 1000x, they would have to pass Bitcoin in popularity tenfold.
And now answer me - what's the likelyhood of that happening?
I actually go curious of the potential of various altcoins and put together the crypto max potential page.
I won't go into any more details here, but you can read more about how the maximum potential is calculated there as well.
You are also welcome to use the max potential calculator.
When I say max potential, I'm not saying that all these cryptos really have that much potential. Rather, the max potential shows the maximum price any crypto could climb to before they would have to take over Bittcoin's first place in crypto world. The max potential in this sense has nothing to do with whether the project is actually good enough to get anywhere close to those levels.
That's all folks!
If you have great ideas on how to earn more money with crypto, feel free to drop me a line and maybe I can include it in this list. You can find me contacts in the site footer.
