We’ve all heard the stories of lucky crypto investors becoming millionaires almost overnight as the value of their initial investments soared in the early years. Crypto has come so far that many people feel it’s already mainstream, especially now with institutional investors making their own big bets in the space.
Those who failed to get in on the early investment opportunities could be forgiven for thinking they’ve missed the boat. The beauty of crypto however is that it’s opened up an entire universe of possibilities for those who’re serious about making some money.
Crypto Derivatives
With crypto now firmly established, it’s less likely that buying and holding tokens will deliver the rewards people are hoping for. That’s not to say investment opportunities no longer exist though. Instead, the smart money is betting on bigger potential gains through crypto derivatives, which allow investors to bet on the movement of Bitcoin and other tokens without holding the assets themselves.
Crypto derivatives is a form of trading where two parties enter into a financial contract to speculate on the price of a cryptocurrency at a future date. The buyer and seller will have directly opposed predictions on the asset’s future trading price, and place wagers on what they believe its future value will be. With derivatives, smart investors can profit by purchasing crypto at a cheaper price than its market value, and sell it at a higher price.
For those who’re willing to take a chance, crypto derivatives can be accessed on decentralized exchange platforms such as SynFutures, which enables Ethereum-native, cross-chain and off-chain assets to be synthesized and freely traded. One of the features of SynFutures is its Synthetic Automated Market Maker, which enables participants to provide a single digital asset of a trading pair, with a smart contract to synthesize the other. The platform also offers user-generated markets that allow anyone to list trading pairs in seconds, and a unique model that makes it possible to list crypto majors, altcoins, NFTs and other assets with a single token.
Get Paid for Writing Reviews
For those who don’t have the stomach for trading, there are other ways to earn crypto. One of the easiest possibilities for many might be writing reviews of the products and services they purchase.
That’s the aim of the Lum Network, which has created a system for companies to reward people who review their products fairly and transparently, even if those reviews happen to be negative. Companies have a big incentive to do this because research shows that as many as 95% of consumers today read at least one review before paying for a product or service. So trustworthy reviews can be invaluable for companies, helping them to sell vastly more products.
What Lum Network aims to eliminate is the risk of consumers falling for fake, paid reviews. It does this using a decentralized rewards system that runs on the blockchain, where anyone can check the immutable records for each review and confirm that a consumer who left a 1-star review received the same reward as someone who left a 5-star verdict. The protocol works by paying out rewards based on the quality of the reviews as opposed to how many stars are given, based on factors such as the number of characters used, attached photo or video and more.
By doing this, Lum Network ensures anyone who reads reviews can trust what they’re reading, while those who buy products and leave a high-quality but honest review will get paid for taking the time to do so.
Sell Your Skills
Another option for those who have some skills to offer is good old-fashioned freelancing. That said, many people – be it writers, graphic designers, logo designers or developers – are put off from freelance work by the high fees and the possibility of being scammed through traditional websites such as Freelancer, Upwork and Fiverr.
With the HUMAN Protocol there’s no risk of being scammed and no middleman that’ll take a hefty chunk out of whatever payment is promised. HUMAN Protocol is an open-source, blockchain-based infrastructure that has created what is, in essence, a decentralized marketplace for freelancers.
The benefit for freelancers is they don’t need to sign up to workpools or go through a convoluted identity verification process. They’ll receive the payment they’re promised in full, with no fees deducted. Add to that, they get paid in the HUMAN Protocol’s native $HMT token, which means no requirement to use an expensive payment provider such as PayPal to receive their earnings.
Stake Your Crypto Assets
For those who already own crypto assets, one of the surest ways of earning is to stake those coins in return for rewards. Staking refers to validating crypto transactions. When staking, the user continues to own their coins but locks them in a cryptocurrency wallet. Proof of stake networks then use those coins to validate transactions, paying the user rewards for doing so. In essence, staking involves lending coins to the network, allowing it to maintain security and verify transactions. The rewards are similar to the interest paid by banks for maintaining a credit balance.
One of the most popular coins for staking is Venus Protocol’s $XVS. The Venus Protocol is a decentralized lending protocol that allows liquidity providers to stake their coins in return for an extremely competitive annual percentage yield of up to 40%. It’s a great way for investors not only to earn extra coins but also to protect themselves against the volatility of crypto markets in general.
Provide Liquidity for Crypto Networks
One final way of making money with crypto is to provide liquidity for the hundreds of cryptocurrency tokens that require it. A liquidity provider is a user who funds a liquidity pool with their own crypto assets to facilitate trading on a platform. In return, they earn passive income on their deposit. Liquidity providers play a key role in many networks and are viewed as essential trade facilitators, who’re rewarded with transaction fees paid for the trades they helped enable.
Liquidity providing opportunities abound in crypto but one of the most exciting options is izumi Finance, which enables programmable liquidity as a service on Uniswap V3 and multi-chains. Izumi Finance helps investors maximize their returns through its LiquidBox protocol, distributing incentive rewards at various price ranges. It provides simple, easy-to-use tools for users to stake their tokens, and claims liquidity providers can earn more trading fees with capital efficiency while benefiting from additional incentives with related protocols.
The above are just several examples of the numerous ways crypto enthusiasts can earn more tokens and put their assets to work. More effort is required, but for enterprising individuals, the above methods can lead to far greater rewards than the simple “Buy and HODL” strategies that paid off so well for early crypto investors in the past.