Learning how to make money in crypto industry is one of the main driving forces for investors getting into the space. When Bitcoin was started in January 2009, it stayed under the radar for a few years before it gained any meaningful public attention. Only a few people in internet forums discussed it and even fewer people were making money from bitcoin. It was not until when Satoshi Nakamoto sent 10 bitcoins to Hal Finney, becoming the first ever Bitcoin transaction. New Liberty Standard published the first bitcoin exchange rate in October 2009, estimating 1 USD= 1,309.03 BTC. This was calculated based on the cost of electricity used to run a computer to generate bitcoins.
Bitcoin Pizza: first public bitcoin transaction
It was the Bitcoin Pizza transaction on May 22 2010 that could be cited as the first public transaction in bitcoin when a Florida-based programmer in USA, offered to pay 10,000 bitcoins for pizza on the Bitcoin Forum. This was only estimated at $25. The rest as they say is history and bitcoin started to slowly gain traction among the general public. As the price of bitcoin increased over the years, many people started to look for ways to make money from burgeoning bitcoin. The main way to make money was to simply mine it or buy it in a few exchanges that were available. This is where the HODL strategy came into being. Since bitcoin could rise even 10X within a short time, just HODLing was enough to make early adopters very rich.
Dawn of ICOs
As blockchains started to become more popular around 2012- 2015 and the subsequent founding of Ethereum, many more opportunities for making money came into being. Now it was not only bitcoin but other alternative cryptocurrencies were started. We have since seen the growth of crypto space in leaps and bounds becoming its own entrenched industry. There are now several ways different people can make money in crypto space other than HODLing. Over time, other strategies such as staking and yield farming have also been adopted. However, these strategies such as yield farming, pool mining, and staking require substantial initial capital investment. in this article, we are only looking at strategies that involve zero or very minimal capital investment for smaller investors.
Here now are the best 4 proven ways to make money in crypto in 2024
1. Investing Early in New Cryptocurrencies & Airdrops
Early investment in presales and new cryptocurrency projects offers a significant opportunity to make money in crypto in 2024. Figure this, Celestia had an airdrop in October 2023 at around $2.18 and peaked at around $20 in Feb 2024. Others like Notcoin have had similar returns in a short period of time. Memecoins such as those associated with prevailing events have also had fair share of rise and fall depending on where investor got it.
Might be interested: Trader turns $16K to $1.8 Million with a memecoin
Identifying low-cap cryptocurrencies or presales allows investors to take advantage of the “first-mover advantage” and potentially see exponential growth. However, due diligence is crucial as investing in newer projects can be risky if they fail to gain traction or face technical challenges.
2. Play-to-Earn Games
Another strategy is by using Play-to-earn (P2E) games. Blockchain-based games allow players to earn rewards, typically in the form of cryptocurrency or NFTs. Players can own in-game assets, such as weapons or skins, represented as NFTs that can be traded on open markets. These games incentivize gameplay with tokens that hold real-world value, offering a unique combination of entertainment and profit. One of the main games to gain traction was Axie Infinity. However, in 2024, the best ones are Telegram mini-app games. In 2024 alone, there have been several successful play-to-earn (or tap-to-earn) telegram games. Notcoin was the first to gain attention which has been followed by several others such as Hamster Kombat. Although the latest one has not made people very happy, it is still a growing avenue for keep an eye on.
3. Affiliate Programs in Crypto
Affiliate programs offered by crypto exchanges provide another avenue to make money without directly investing. By referring new users to a platform, affiliates earn commissions from the referred user’s transaction fees. This method requires little to no capital investment and can be quite lucrative, depending on the popularity of the exchange and the number of referrals. While competitive, finding the right affiliate programs such as betcoin can offer substantial passive income. Researching top-paying affiliate opportunities can increase earnings in this growing market. The best way to maximize on affiliate programs is to tap into new exchanges or new crypto projects that are seeking massive growth in the early days. These projects could also include memecoins and NFTs.
4. Completing microtasks
There are several crypto companies and projects that reward people to complete specific micro-tasks and get paid in crypto. At the simplest level, we have things like completing surveys and learn-to-earn. Under learn-to-earn some crypto companies and projects incentivize new users to learn more about their project they reward users with points when they learn about a specific topic. Usually the way they are structured is such that the user learns in levels and as they graduate to higher levels they earn more points. Users can then convert these points into the native crypto of the platform or a stablecoin like USDT. Most of the mainstream crypto projects have these programs. In these projects, you learn something, take a test and if you pass, you earn points or crypto. Some examples include Tapswap, Coinbase Earn, Crypto.com university, Binance. On Brave Browser, users can earn rewards by viewing ads. You can learn more about how Brave browser on this article on cointelegraph.
For microtasks, we have platforms such as Jumptask where you can earn crypto by playing games, taking surveys and get paid in native $JMPT token. At a higher level, users with specific skills can also earn by contributing in ways such as code reviews, making content, or getting employed as part-time, full time or remote employees. For these, make sure to check crypto job portals such as CryptoJobsList, CryptoJobs, Bitcoinjobs, bitgigs, among others . Pathera is also a good portal.
Overall, if you are enthusiastic about some crypto projects, also lurk on their telegram and discord communities. Here you might find opportunities or also be pro-active in contributing to the projects which could lead to more opportunities down the line.
In conclusion, by exploring these methods, crypto enthusiasts can diversify their strategies and maximize earnings across different platforms and projects. It is important to note that investors need to undertake due diligence in the platforms and projects they are investing. Some of the projects can be scams or be thriving grounds for rug-pulls, and phishing attempts therefore conducting in-depth research before adopting any of the above strategies is very important.
