Cryptocurrency has revolutionized how we think about finance and continues to gain popularity, with more and more people looking for ways to earn digital assets. In this comprehensive guide, we will explore the top 10 strategies for earning cryptocurrency in 2023.
1. Find a Job in Crypto 👨💻
Discover opportunities with crypto firms (many include payment of salaries or bonuses with tokens). To see what openings are out there, start browsing platforms such as Crypto Jobs List, Cryptocurrency Jobs, CryptoJobs, Pomp Crypto Jobs, and Proof of Talent.
Competition is fierce in the crypto industry and landing a job is easier said than done. So here are a couple of alternatives if you cannot find any suitable openings (or are already employed):
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Join an ambassador program: many protocols and projects pay ambassadors for promotion and word-of-mouth marketing.
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Accept crypto as a business owner: if you run your own business, consider setting up a crypto payment option using services such as BTCPay Server, CoinGate or NOWPayments.
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Try your hand at freelance work: search marketplaces like cryptogigs, CryptoTask, LabourX, and Latium for small gigs.
2. Bounties & Giveaways 💰
People with the right technical skills can earn significant amounts by helping DeFi protocols become more secure through bug bounties on platforms like ImmuneFi and Sherlock. But bounties are not just for those that are smart contract whizzes though! Content creators can also earn bounties for promoting a project and generating greater awareness, which are usually advertised through a project’s Discord server.
As well as bounties, giveaways are another avenue to building your crypto holdings with relatively little effort. Many crypto projects host giveaways through AMAs, competitions, and promotional campaigns. The best way to stay updated on giveaways is to join the newsletters of different apps and projects.
But be vigilant as many scams are disguised as giveaways: never ever send crypto to someone you don’t know, secure your private key, secret seed phrase and personal information, avoid sharing this information in the promise of getting something for nothing and always remember to do your own research!
3. Blogs & Vlogs 🖊️📽️
Many successful bloggers, streamers and video makers have earned substantial sums from Web2 via monetization on platforms like Patreon and YouTube. But the emergence of Web3 alternatives offers new opportunities and greater promise for creative minds.
For writers, there’s Mirror which allows anyone to turn their writing into an NFT and set a price in terms of ETH for people to collect their work. Just by setting a cheap price of 0.001 ETH and 100 people collect the article as an NFT, that generates 0.10 ETH in earnings. All that’s required is a Web3 wallet, a small amount of ETH on Optimism to publish as an NFT and some good article ideas.
Mirror has generated just over 575 ETH ($904,202) for writers on its platform, in just over a year since launching the writing NFT feature!
Source: Dune
For video content creators, there’s Lenstube. Upload your videos and set a price for people to collect them as NFTs to earn MATIC (note you’ll need a Lens Protocol handle). Even if you don’t have a Lens account yet, there are other platforms like DLive and LBRY where video makers can earn crypto.
If you’re creatively minded, then there’s no limit to what you can do to earn some crypto! It’s not just writers and video makers who are benefiting from the rise of Web3 platforms. Musicians and photographers can also turn to NFTs to get paid for their work. The only drawback of this method is that you’ll need an existing audience or fan base to earn a decent amount.
If content creation isn’t your thing and you prefer to consume content, then the good news is that you can also earn small amounts of BTC by using the Fountain app. Listen to podcasts for an hour each day to start acquiring some sats!
4. Learn-to-Earn 🏫
Learn-to-Earn platforms are a quick and easy way to earn small amounts of crypto. For example, you can get $20 in OP by completing quizzes through Coinbase’s mobile wallet (note you need to set up a Coinbase account and complete KYC to be eligible).
As well as learn-to-earn platforms, you can also embark on quests on platforms like Galxe (filter by reward type and then select “Token Reward”), Layer3, Questn and RabbitHole to earn some tokens by completing tasks and quizzes. Many of the opportunities offer XP or points to level up and unlock more quests to complete, but you can win prizes through lucky draws for doing some of them.
5. Airdrops 🪂
Airdrops are one of the best ways to earn crypto with very little effort and are a very effective way of accumulating an upcoming token at the minimal cost basis.
There’s great earning potential for airdrops, as you may be eligible to claim thousands of dollars worth of tokens (although some airdrops may be worth much less).
Earn newly launched cryptos through interacting with testnets before new chains or projects launch, or interact with tokenless protocols to earn a future allocation (in which case there is a cost involved, such as gas or using your own funds).
For more details about airdrop hunting, check out our playbook👇
6. Cashback Programs 💸
Are you a big spender? If so, cashback programs might be a good way for you to add to your crypto holdings. All you need to do is switch up your spending habits to earn some crypto through cashback programs.
BitRefill offers cryptocurrency users in 170 countries up to 10% cashback in BTC when purchasing gift cards from a variety of retailers. Here’s one idea of how you can start earning crypto without adjusting your budget: Instead of using cash or fiat to purchase your groceries, buy a gift card for your favorite retailer using a variety of cryptos (such as BTC, ETH or USDC) via BitRefill.
Let’s say we’re going to do some weekly shopping at Marks & Spencer in the UK and buy a £100 gift card. Since this retailer offers a 1% cashback rate, you’ll earn £1 in BTC for every £100 spent.
After purchasing the gift card, you can replace the crypto you spent with the money you’d normally use to buy groceries and earn cashback rewards to add to your digital currency stack!
And it’s not just groceries you can use this technique for. Cashback can also be earned from Starbucks, electronics goods retailers and many more stores. Note that more BTC can be earned by purchasing higher-priced items using gift cards.
As well as BitRefill, you can also earn crypto in similar ways:
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Use the Lolli browser extension. Although it’s only available for US merchants at the moment, you may be able to earn rewards when making purchases from an American website (e.g., Booking.com). More merchants and coverage for other locations will be expanded in the near future.
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Take advantage of other cashback programs such as the Fold app and satsback.com.
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Book flights and hotels via Travala.com. Travelers can earn the project’s AVA token when making purchases through their website.
Finally, cryptocurrency credit cards provide yet another method to earn tokens passively whenever you spend (a good comparison can be found here).
7. Referral Programs 🗣️
Another passive income strategy to consider is the various referral programs on offer by a range of different cryptocurrency companies.
Most exchanges and P2P marketplaces (e.g., LocalCoinSwap and Noones) have a referral program where you can generate income from a personalized link that can be shared with others to sign up to the platform and trade. Referral programs are popular across the entire crypto ecosystem, with the potential to earn through referrals to hardware wallets such as Keystone and Trezor.
The earnings you can generate depends on how large of a network you have and how deeply they are involved in crypto. If you’ve got an extensive network of friends that are just getting started in crypto or you know a lot of high-volume traders, then this is a good option to earn some rewards with very little effort.
8. Play-to-Earn 🎮
If you’re excited about gaming on the blockchain, this is another way to earn crypto. While you have to buy some of the game’s NFTs to take part, if you are a good gamer and can dedicate enough time, then making money from the ‘GameFi’ narrative is possible.
The list below details some of the most popular play-to-earn blockchain games:
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The Sandbox: design your own in-game assets using the VoxEdit tool and sell them as NFTs through Sandbox’s marketplace. You can also create and monetize your own 3D games using the Game Maker tool. Neither of these options requires you to be a coding expert and both tools are free to use!
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Gods Unchained: a virtual trading card game where you can earn tokens by participating in tournaments.
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Axie Infinity: to get started, you’ll have to purchase at least 3 Axies, which can earn you SLP through battling and playing the game. It is also possible to breed Axies and sell the offspring on the project’s native marketplace.
To discover other play-to-earn opportunities, familiarize yourself with platforms like DappRadar and NonFungible, as well as signing up with newsletters that offer the latest news and insights into GameFi, such as Metaversal.
9. Staking & Yield Generation 🧑🌾
Staking and yield generation is another great way to earn some crypto, although it requires some initial capital to get started. The potential rewards can be high depending on the option you choose. It’s recommended to visit platforms like DeFiLlama and stable.fish to seek the highest yielding opportunities.
Some methods you can use to grow your crypto holdings include:
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Staking ETH in a crypto wallet such as Argent to earn up to 4% APR. Omni is another great crypto wallet with a slick user interface that allows you to stake various assets, including ETH, MATIC and SOL.
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Lazy River staking: earn a sustainable, double-digit yield in USDC and vePERP based on actual market activity by locking PERP into vePERP. The trading fees generated by DEX traders are shared with vePERP holders every week, who collectively earn 15% of the fees.
Sign up for our Hot Tub vaults to earn a sustainable yield in WETH or USDC effortlessly from an automated arbitrage strategy.
10. Be Active on Reddit to Earn Donuts and Moons 🍩 🌝
As part of the community points initiative on the popular social platform Reddit, engaged users of two cryptocurrency-related subreddits can earn the Donuts and Moons tokens.
In May 2020, Reddit introduced an ERC-20 token called Moons, which is now deployed on Arbitrum Nova, as a way to reward the contributions of r/CryptoCurrency subscribers (such as sharing good content or leaving useful comments). Moons can be earned by sharing good content, leaving useful comments, as well as participation in competitions such as community trivia, cointest and prediction tournaments.
Meme masters can also earn up to 350 Moons if they manage to rank in the top 5 meme posts in r/CryptoCurrencyMemes in terms of upvotes at the end of each month.
Being active in the r/CryptoCurrency subreddit is not the only way you can earn some tokens for your contributions. Members of r/ethtrader can also earn another ERC-20 token on mainnet and Gnosis chain known as Donuts. Donuts are distributed every 4 weeks automatically, based on your contributions to r/ethtrader and accumulated karma from this subreddit.
By engaging in the strategies outlined above, such as airdrop hunting, cashback programs and yield generation, you can diversify your crypto income. Remember to research each opportunity thoroughly, assess the risks and rewards, and stay informed about the latest trends and developments in this rapidly evolving market.