By Rebecca Safier, Wealth of Geeks
Earning free money might sound too good to be true, but savvy consumers know opportunities abound. From getting a bonus on a new credit card to earning rebates through cash-back apps, it’s possible to reap the rewards of free cash.
Now that more people are embracing the blockchain, it’s also increasingly possible to earn free cryptocurrency. Whether you’re an experienced crypto investor or new to the game, you can pad your portfolio with free coins — if you know where to look.
Read on to learn how to earn free crypto, including some critical advice on minimizing risk and tracking your taxable income.
How to Earn Free Crypto: 16 Savvy Tips
While you’re probably not going to strike it rich with free crypto, earning coins could be a great way for seasoned investors to bolster their holdings or for newbies to get in on the game. But before you start pursuing free coins, here are some words of caution:
First, the cryptocurrency market is nothing if not volatile. At the time of writing, bitcoin is worth approximately $44,000, down about 36% from its all-time high of nearly $69,000. Coins can shoot up and down in value in a short period, so be prepared for a potentially bumpy ride.
Second, it’s always important to be cautious before going after free coins, as some promises could be too good to be true. Free airdrops, for example, are sometimes legitimate opportunities, but other times are scams.
When pursuing free crypto, be careful about sharing any sensitive personal information, such as your Social Security number or bank account details, if you haven’t done your due diligence first.
Now that you’ve been appropriately cautioned, here’s how to earn free cryptocurrency:
1. Earn Rewards from Freecash
Freecash partners with market research companies to provide offers and surveys that you can complete in your spare time to earn rewards. You’ll earn Freecash coins, which you can cash in for cryptocurrency, gift cards, and more.
It’s free to sign up for Freecash and start earning. After you sign up, head to the site’s Earn page, where you can select from various offers. Note that 1,000 coins equal $1.00, and you can typically earn that amount in just five to 10 minutes.
Crypto withdrawals start at $0.10, and you can redeem your coins in bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, or Dogecoin. Freecash also offers an additional incentive of $500 per day and $2,500 per month to its top users.
2. Earn Crypto with a Cash-Back App
From Drop to Rakuten, there are several free browser extensions that will rebate a percentage of your purchase when you shop at one of their partner stores. If you’d rather earn free crypto than cash, you can do so with Lolli, a free extension for Chrome or Firefox.
When you shop with one of Lolli’s retail partners (which include Nike, Chewy, Priceline, and more), you can elect to get “bitcoin back.” You might earn anywhere from 1% to 30% of your total purchase price. Once your rewards hit your Lolli account, you can transfer them to your crypto wallet or exchange.
If you’d prefer to stick with a traditional cash-back app such as Drop or Rakuten, you can earn rewards in cash, which you can then use to purchase cryptocurrency. Note that Drop also lets you earn points from taking surveys.
3. Open a Crypto Credit Card
Like a traditional rewards credit card, a cryptocurrency credit card earns you cryptocurrency rewards on your purchases. Here are a few crypto cards worth exploring:
Crypto credit card | Rewards | What you can redeem your points for |
BlockFi Rewards Visa® Signature Credit Card | 3.5% on your purchases in the first 3 months; 1.5% after that | Bitcoin |
Upgrade Card | $200 bonus when you open a rewards checking account and make 3 transactions; 1.5% back when you make payments | Bitcoin |
Gemini Credit Card | Up to 3% back | Bitcoin, ether, or 75+ other cryptos |
Crypto.com Visa Card | Up to 8% back | CRO |
None of these cards charge an annual fee, so it could be worthwhile to keep one in your wallet if you’re looking to earn free crypto. At the same time, you don’t want to overspend for the sake of earning cryptocurrency. Try not to spend more than you can afford to pay off each month so you can avoid the high-interest charges that come with credit cards.
4. Enjoy Sign-Up or Referral Bonuses
Some cryptocurrency exchanges offer bonuses when you sign up for the first time or refer a friend to sign up using your referral link. Make sure to read over the terms of these bonuses, as you might need to take additional steps to claim them, such as purchasing a certain amount of crypto within a period.
Here are a few cryptocurrency exchanges that offer signup bonuses:
Exchange | Bonus |
SoFi | $10 – $100 |
Nexo | $100 when you make your first top-up of $1,000 or more |
Coinbase | $5 |
5. Earn Free Stock and Trade it for Crypto
Along similar lines, you could earn a signup bonus of stock in exchange for opening an account with a stock brokerage company, specifically one that also provides a cryptocurrency exchange. Once you’ve received your free stock, you could sell it and use the proceeds to buy crypto.
Here are some examples of brokerages that offer free stock as a signup bonus and let you purchase cryptocurrency on their platform:
Exchange | Bonus |
SoFi | Up to $1,000 |
Public.com | $3 – $300 |
Robinhood | $3 – $225 |
Webull | Up to $3,000 |
6. Earn Helium Coin Through The People’s Network
Depending on where you live, you might be able to earn Helium coins — and help build a new “Internet of Things” (IoT) in the process. The Helium Network, which calls itself the People’s Network, is a network of 5G hotspots provided by individuals with the goal of building a decentralized internet.
Participating in the People’s Network isn’t free — you’ll need to purchase a hotspot, which can cost around $400, as well as connect it to your internet service. However, once you get everything up and running, you can passively earn free Helium coins daily.
As of the time of writing, one Helium coin is priced at $25, though it hit $50 in Nov. 2021.
7. Sign up for Dimo car
Similar to Helium, DIMO is building an IoT platform that involves drivers collecting and sharing their vehicle data. By signing up, you’ll contribute your vehicle’s data to DIMO, which will use it to build new technology and applications. In return, you’ll earn DIMO tokens for participating.
If you’re interested in taking part, you can start the signup process here.
8. Watch Videos and Take Surveys
Some cryptocurrency exchanges offer rewards in the form of free crypto to users who watch educational videos, take surveys, or play games on their site. If the video is about a specific altcoin, you’ll likely earn your rewards in that coin.
Some sites that offer free crypto to users include:
- Coinbase
- CoinMarketCap
- Phemex
- Cointiply
- Bituro (a mobile app)
If you’re looking for a long-term investment, you might choose to exchange any altcoins you earn for something like bitcoin or Ethereum. But keep in mind that trading coins falls under taxable income, so you’ll want to keep track of your activity for tax purposes.
9. Loan Out Your Crypto
If you’re a risk-taker, you might try to loan out your cryptocurrency holdings through a lending program like Gemini Earn or BlockFi. As with any lender, you can then earn interest back on the amount — as much as 8.05% APY with Gemini Earn or 8.0% with the BlockFi Interest Account.
Of course, lending out your crypto carries the risk that you won’t get the full amount back. But if you’re willing to take your chances, you could earn a decent amount of interest back on your holdings. Note that any interest you earn this way will likely count as taxable income.
10. Sign up for staking
Another way to earn interest on your cryptocurrency is through staking or leaving your holdings in your wallet. Letting your crypto sit untouched helps maintain the blockchain, so you might be able to earn rewards or interest this way.
Note: Some exchanges will only let you stake certain coins, so you might have to invest in altcoins, which may or may not be worth the interest you could earn from this strategy.
11. Read or Write Articles on Publish0X
Publish0X is a cryptocurrency platform that shares its ad revenue in the form of free crypto with both its writers and readers. You can sign up for a free account using your Facebook or Twitter login credentials (email signup coming soon).
If you want to become an author, you’ll submit an author application and be notified whether or not you’ve been accepted within 24 hours. Once you start writing articles, you’ll get paid as readers tip you on the site.
Readers, furthermore, can choose to keep a portion of the tips for themselves, thereby getting paid in free crypto. You’ll likely earn crypto in the coin that the article was about, so you might end up getting an obscure altcoin.
But reading or writing Publish0X articles is still a relatively low-effort way to earn free crypto.
12. Spend Time Browsing LunarCrush
LunarCrush tracks social media activity on cryptocurrency and distills it into digestible takeaways for its readers. Not only can this website help you keep your finger on the pulse of the cryptocurrency world, but it could also earn you free crypto in the form of LUNR tokens.
LunarCrush gives out 65,000 LUNR tokens every day to its site users who are actively exploring social metrics for different coins. Once you’ve collected at least 35 LUNR tokens, you can withdraw them and put them in your wallet.
13. Use the Brave Browser
If you’re looking for another way to earn free crypto, consider surfing the web with the Brave Browser. With the Brave Browser, you can earn Basic Attention Tokens (BAT) in exchange for watching ads. Once you’ve earned your BAT, you can hold on to them or transfer them to an exchange wallet of your choice.
14. Surf the Web with Presearch
Along with trying out the Brave Browser, you might also check out Presearch to search the web. This decentralized search engine will reward you with Presearch (PRE) tokens for using its service.
Some users suggest that Presearch shows you fewer ads than Google, and gives you more privacy as well. However, your search results might not match the quality of the results you’ll get when using Google.
At the time of writing, PRE coins are worth about $0.22.
15. Play Games on Your Phone
Surveys and quizzes aren’t the only ways to earn free crypto — you can also get rewarded by playing mobile games. Whether you’re into strategy, crossword puzzles, or fighting your way to victory in an anime world, you can find a game that will reward you in free crypto.
Here are a few mobile games worth checking out:
- Coin Hunt
- CryptoWord
- CryptoPop
- Chain of Guardians
- SparkPoint’s SparkPlay
16. Get in on a Free Airdrop
When holding an initial coin offering (ICO) to launch a new crypto coin, companies will sometimes offer some of those coins for free in what is known as an airdrop. If you can get in on the airdrop, developers may send some free crypto directly to your wallet.
To qualify, you might need to sign up for the company’s newsletter, follow it on social media, or share the airdrop event with your friends. You can learn about airdrops on sites like airdrops.io or CoinMarketCap’s airdrop page.
Participating in airdrops carries significant risk, however. For one thing, the coin you receive might never take off, making it ultimately worthless and not worth the effort of pursuing the airdrop.
But more importantly, there are many airdrop scams online, so be careful about sharing any sensitive information. Even if you find an airdrop opportunity on a trusted site, it’s important to do your due diligence and confirm its legitimacy before participating.
Bottom Line
While there are legitimate ways to earn free cryptocurrency, it’s always important to proceed with caution. Make sure you trust the source before sharing any sensitive information and don’t invest more than you can afford to lose.
Cryptocurrency is pretty much always a volatile investment, and it can be especially risky when you’re purchasing new altcoins. And if you’re not able to trade your free cryptocurrency on a major exchange, it might not be worth the effort.
Finally, don’t forget that cryptocurrency earnings are typically treated as taxable income, so keep a record of your investments ahead of tax season. By tracking your crypto holdings, you can help ensure that your assets are earning you more money than they’re costing you.
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