If you look hard enough, each month there are great opportunities to earn cryptos with a very limited amount of time and effort. Trust me, I have a full-time job and side hustle, so I would only shoot for low time for an acceptable return. For example, it takes less than 5 minutes to read about a specific crypto on coinbase/earn and earn 3$. This means an hourly rate of 36$. Not bad right?
Small hint, don’t miss the last one. It’s my favorite!
Coinbase earn
- Difficulty: Simple
- Time: Approx 5-10 minutes per earn program
- Risk: No risk
This is probably the most well-known trick. But if you are just starting to get into cryptos, then Coinbase Earn is a great way to start. At first, you just need to create a Coinbase account. After using the account for a couple of months, make few trades and invest in crypto (how much is unclear). You will then be eligible to Coinbase Earn.
After you finish the quiz, then the cryptos will be wired to your Coinbase account portfolio directly. If you doubt this works, here a snapshot of the confirmation email that you will receive after each successful quiz.
It can help for you to be eligible quicker if you use a referral link.
- Band Protocol referral link >> click here
- Compound protocol Coinbase Referral link >> click here
- Stellar Lumens protocol Coinbase earn >> click here
Coinmarketcap earn
- Difficulty: Simple
- Time: Approx 5-10 minutes per earn program
- Risk: No risk
Since recently, Coinmarketcap is also starting to offer an earn program. At the moment, there is three live campaign. Sandbox and Orchid. The questions are a bit more difficult than on Coinbase earn, but it’s still worth the time.
Refer your friends to crypto
- Difficulty: Medium
- Time: Approx 5-10 minutes per earn program
- Risk: To me this is effortless, I am passionate about cryptos and I believe this is a sound store of value. My enthusiasm is probably contagious. However, be careful to not insist too much. If a friend is not into it, don’t push.
Within my network, many people ask me about crypto. I also help multiple crypto communities by answering questions people about cryptos. When I help someone, I then ask the person to use my referral link. Some do, some others don’t and that’s okay.
As a crypto adopter, I also see it as my duty to spread the word. The more people recognize the advantage of holding cryptos instead of fiat money, the more people will use it. Network effect.
I manage to refer 1-2 friends each month to Coinbase of Binance.
This is not an investment advise.
Be on multiple platforms to receive opportunities
- Difficulty: Simple
- Time: Approx 20 minutes per platform
- Risk: No risk
- Reward: By registering on multiple platforms, you also learn about other ways of doing things and even new business models.
At the moment, I am registered on multiple platforms such as Coinbase, BlockFi (Please read my review of BlockFi), Binance, Kraken, Swissborg. All those platforms have founders and investors. They need to deliver growth in terms of user base and assets under management. What it means is that those companies will want to use special offers to grow quicker. Sometimes those offers are as simple as wire 50$ and get 10$ back.
- Blockfi to earn passive income on your cryptos >> Link
- Binance to have lower fees on trading >> Link
- Swissborg to earn a free lottery ticket with up to 100$ reward >> Link
Are you based in Nigeria – 🇳🇬? If yes, then have a look at my guide on how to find the best site to buy Bitcoin in Nigeria.
Follow airdrops
- Difficulty: Medium complexity.
- Time: Middle amount of time. Need to follow news and react quickly.
- Risk: Beware of scams. If it’s too good to be true it probably is. Ask yourself why is someone giving me free money? If you can’t understand why then you are probably the “sucker” of the scam.
A lot of Airdrops are done on a regular basis to increase adoption. In the last couple of weeks, there were a couple of airdrops. The most prominent one, the airdrop of FLN coin if you hold XRP in your wallet. But if you look further, there are lots of less-known airdrops happening. For example, Binance was airdropping SXP and BEL tokens to BNB holders as well as webinar attendees
Uniswap, a DeFi protocol also made a massive airdrop to its user’s couple of months ago.
Rocketpool created an infrastructure to learn how to stake ETH before the ETH 2.0 release. People who helped to test the system will be rewarded in Rocketpool tokens.
My advice would be to use google alerts in order to be notified about a new airdrop.
>> “airdrop crypto”
>> “airdrop snapshot”
>> “earn free cryptos”
Beyond setting up google alerts, feel free to follow Coinmarketcal to stay informed about future airdrops.
A word of caution: Only use trusted platforms and do your own research. Some airdrops can sometimes be scams.
My favorite: Use a crypto cashback credit card
- Difficulty: Simple
- Time: Low amount of time
- Risk: Need to lock coins of the crypto credit card provider ton earn an interesting cashback
This is the method I like the most. Why? Because it’s 100% passive. It only requires time to set up the credit card and then you can live your life normally and use the crypto credit card for your daily payments. With a crypto card, you can earn up to 8% on your purchases in crypto.
There are multiple providers but my favorite is the Binance card. Here to open an account on Binance. If you don’t like it for any reason or if Binance is not available in your location, feel free to try Crypto.com.
A word of caution though: Crypto credit card providers advertise a massive cashback rate. 8% in the traditional economy is unheard of. However, those cashback rates are progressive according to how much crypto of the credit card provider you own.
Keep also in mind that the cashback is paid in the crypto of the provider which is subject to fluctuation. The crypto platform does not offer such a high cashback for charity reasons. The aim of the crypto platform is to have more people buy the coin of the provider.
Therefore, make sure to make the following calculation for yourself before you decide whether this is something for you or not. Example: If you spend 1000$ per month with your credit card but you block 8000 BNB to achieve 8% cashback then you will get 80$ cashback in BNB for an immobilized stake in BNB of 209k$. It means a rate of return of 0.45% (12*80USD/209700 ~0.45%) which is not great. However, if you spend 20.000$ with a credit card per month, then you will get ~9.15% return which is great :-). I highlighted both examples I took in the following table.
Last but not least, some credit cards will charge you a fee on each purchase. For now, the Binance card is free but I heard that they consider a 0.9% fee which would have to be deducted from the return.
When calculating for yourself, make sure to check the latest price of the BNB coin.
In closing words, as you can see, you can earn crypto with a very limited of time and effort. While it does not look like a lot at first, 100$ per month will compound over time. It’s also important to follow the right kind of influencers and newsletters to not miss new offers. For example, Virtualbacon and Bankless are my favorite.
If you decide to use some of those methods, always think about the “why”? No one in this world will give you money for free. If there is an airdrop or a referral program, then it’s because the company has an incentive to win you as a customer. If you cannot understand the rationale behind the free crypto then make sure to be extremely vigilant as it could be a good old scam.
| How? | How much? |
|---|---|
| Coinbase Earn | ~10USD/m |
| Coinmarketcap Earn | ~10USD/m |
| Refer friends to cryptos | ~20USD/m |
| Register to multiple platforms | ~15USD/m |
| Follow airdrops | ~5USD/m |
| Credit card cashback | ~40USD/m |
