Where do you go to find options to earn cryptocurrency instead of buying it? Here is a list of all the possible ways to get free bitcoin, etheruem, dogecoin and many other crypto coins.
Not Investment Advice: The information provided does not constitute investment advice, financial advice, trading advice, or any other sort of advice. Do conduct your own due diligence and consult your financial advisor before making any investment decisions.
How to Earn Free Cryptocurrency
There are many ways to earn free crypto. You can earn referral rewards paid in Bitcoin, for example. You can also apply for certain credit cards that offer free crypto as part of their rewards program. You can even earn it by shopping on certain platforms. Military families and individuals interested in crypto might want to start their journey with one of the options below for a low-cost introduction to the world of Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc.
Sign Up For Crypto Trading, Digital Wallets
Some exchanges, trading platforms, and related enterprises offer digital currency as a reward for signing up.
Other platforms may provide free crypto as a reward for signing up via a referral link. You may also be able to sign up and earn even more digital currency by providing your own referral links back to that company.
Remember that you will be required in most cases to set up an account to earn these rewards and that the rewards you are paid may not be paid in Bitcoin, Ethereum, etc. You will need to check the terms of service for each referral program. Remember, the value of any digital currency compared to its peers can vary wildly from day to day.
Examples of Crypto Platform that offer crypto cash for signing up include:
- Celsius: Join Celsius Network. Use referral code 118799858f when signing up and earn $40 in BTC with your first transfer of $400 or more.
- Coinbase: Get $10 in free Bitcoin when you buy or sell $100 of crypto.
- Voyager: Download the Voyager app and you’ll get $25 in free Bitcoin after trading a minimum of $100. Voyager is a crypto trading app that lets you invest and earn up to 10% interest APR. Available for iOS and Android devices. Use promo code FDC0D8 or this referral link to claim your BTC.
Airdrops
An airdrop is when the developers of a new blockchain platform give away free crypto, in order to boost adoption, create awareness and create a community of users. The claim process differs from project to project. Some drop tokens automatically into the wallets of users who own a specific coin. Other projects are snapshot based, and can only be claimed by users who held the required token during the snapshot, which is a record of token holders taken at a specific time/block.
Find a list of Airdrops here.
Crypto Debit & Credit Card Rewards
Just like a conventional debit or credit card, cryptocurrency cards allow you to complete transactions using BTC, ETH, XRP and other altcoins. These cards are backed by Visa and Mastercard, meaning they are accepted everywhere Visa and Mastercard are accepted.
Rewards vary by debit and credit card but most crypto cards promise to offer a cash-back percentage for every purchase you make. The rewards benefits are often higher than traditional debit and credit cards with little to no fees and annual costs. For example, the Crypto.com credit card offers up to 10% cash back on their CRO token.
That option isn’t for everyone, to be sure, but it’s a good example of what is likely the future of credit card rewards programs or at the very least an important feature of those programs.
Staking Rewards
You can earn rewards when you lock coins “stake” for a period of time as an incentive to acquire and hold onto cryptocurrency. Some staking coins may require a holding period. Interest rates range wildly from less than 1% to greater than 20% and even much higher. Each cryptocurrency or platform use different ways of calculating staking rewards.
Find a comprehensive list of staking rewards here.
Giveaways
Giveaways typically entail some type of action in order to receive. For instance, an exchange may require signing up for something or completing a certain volume of trades. Other types of giveaways can often be found on social media where crypto is offered to people who sign-up, follow, like or share social content or profiles.
Learn Crypto
Some exchanges will pay to watch and learn about select cryptocurrency coins. It’s a great way to learn and get paid for doing so.
For example, Coinbase is a cryptocurrency trading platform but you can also earn free crypto by learning about different types of digital currency. You can learn about the stablecoin Dai, which is backed by actual currency.
Users also learn about the Basic Attention Token, Celo, and NuCypher. You earn free cryptocurrency from the platform you are studying–there are videos and even a quiz to help you learn. The quiz portion does not “punish” you for wrong answers and you can retake the quiz as often as needed to pass and earn your currency.
Shop for Free Crypto On StormX
StormX is a shopping app that pays rewards in cryptocurrency. The official site’s marketing blurb states, “No complicated crypto-jargon. Just sign up, shop, and start your Crypto Cashback journey! Who said crypto had to be hard?”
This StormX app lets you shop over 700 retailers, and “receive up to 87.5% Crypto Cash Back!” You don’t have to own the StormX coin (STMX) but doing so increases the cash back percentage by up to 3.5x. For instance, with GAP brands the crypto cash back starts at 4% and can increase to as much as 14%!
Earning Crypto By Playing Games
The Google App Store features third-party games and gaming apps that pay rewards in cryptocurrency. One such app is called CryptoPop, which pays in Ethereum for skilled game play.
User complaints in the Google App Store about this particular app include gripes about the payout level (“too low” is a common complaint) but if you have never used cryptocurrency before, a gaming app might be a great way to earn some to see what all the fuss is about.
CryptoPop isn’t the only gaming app that pays digital currency rewards. CryptoRise, Splinterlands, and Huntercoin are also gaming apps that pay rewards in crypto if you hang in there long enough.
Let’s Talk About Cryptocurrency
The most important thing to understand about cryptocurrency as a potential investor–whether that means you spend money on crypto or you are trying to earn free cryptocurrency–is that Bitcoin, Ethereum, Dogecoin, and others are speculative investments with an extremely high risk of loss.
Cryptocurrency is not like investing in stocks, bonds, or other assets that have real-world backing by U.S. dollars or other “fiat currency”, gold, etc. Cryptocurrency has no inherent value, meaning that unlike gold (which DOES have inherent value) the value of your Bitcoin or Ethereum investment is based SOLELY on marketplace enthusiasm.
Elon Musk has repeatedly affected the value of Bitcoin with social media posts, and the ability of a single famous person to do that means that there is an elevated risk of loss.
Bottom line? Cryptocurrency is volatile and subject to more variables than traditional investments. Does that mean you should NOT invest? No, but it DOES mean you should make informed choices about these opportunities.
Crypto Issues You Should Know
As mentioned above, using digital currency requires you to store crypto keys, which represent your digital currency.
You can store these on paper (not recommended as the only way you store these keys) but you will find that using a digital wallet is the easier method of storing the keys. Whatever platform you trade crypto on will require the entry of these lengthy keys, the digital wallet is best.
Digital wallets are where your crypto is stored; exchanges and trading platforms are where you use your digital wallet to buy, sell, or trade crypto.
Remember, “Bitcoin” and “Ethereum” are proper names for specific types of cryptocurrency. The term Bitcoin is not a catch-all for all digital currency.
We mention this because some users may expect, as a result of misunderstanding these proper nouns, to be paid in Bitcoin. But there are hundreds, if not thousands of digital currencies in use. They do NOT have standardized value.
The value of Bitcoin is NOT the same as the value of Ethereum, Dogecoin, etc. Each one has its own value. Don’t make the mistake of assuming all digital currencies are worth the same amount of money per “coin”. They are not.
Cashing In Your Cryptocurrency
As stated above, and we really cannot emphasise this enough, tne caveat consumers should know about using cryptocurrency in this manner is that not all crypto carries the same value. Are you hoping to convert one form of cryptocurrency into another? Do you need to convert crypto to cash?
The conversion rate may not be as customer-friendly as you might think. Always research the conversion rates for going from one currency to another or from crypto to cash. And remember, yesterday’s value for Bitcoin may not be today’s valuation–watch the market carefully. Exchange rates for real currency and digital money both fluctuate and change on a regular basis. Don’t be taken by surprise.
Joe Wallace is a 13-year veteran of the United States Air Force and a former reporter for Air Force Television News