10 ways to earn crypto

Disclaimer: This is not financial advice and Argent is not a regulated financial entity. The value of crypto is highly volatile. Please do your own research on the risks.

Earning crypto

To get crypto you don’t just have to buy it, you can earn it too. Here are 10 ways to earn crypto, ranging from playing games to learning about crypto projects.  

1. Play to earn

The first way to earn crypto is by playing blockchain games. Yes, you heard that correctly - playing blockchain games.

Currently, the most used Dapp is Axie Infinity, a Pokemon-inspired blockchain game. Players can battle, collect and raise Axies, the in-game character, and build kingdoms by purchasing in-game land to develop. These plots of land can sell for eye-watering prices. In February 2021, for example, a collection of 9 plots of land sold for a staggering $1.5 million, becoming the most expensive NFT sale at the time!

And in countries like the Philippines, people play Axie Infinity to earn a living.  Watch the video below for more:

Axie Infinity isn’t the only option available either. There are online trading card games like Gods Unchained and fantasy football with Sorare. These are only just some choices; for a complete list, check out PlayToEarn.

2. Learn to earn

Crypto can seem overwhelming at first, and trying to figure it out on your own can make you go down a crypto rabbit hole. That's why RabbitHole is a perfect name for a place to learn and do tasks for crypto protocols.

RabbitHole is simple. You earn crypto for using Dapps. When there is an active quest, you connect your wallet, complete the task. An example task is lending and borrowing tokens with Aave. This is a great start to learn all about how to use DeFi. If you get that task done while it's active, you earn a reward.  

Image: RabbitHole Aave quest.

Another option is 1729, where people ask others to complete tasks for them. For example, you could review a book or compile a list of DAOs. If your work gets selected, then you get paid in either Bitcoin or Ethereum.

Finally, some centralized exchanges like Coinbase let you learn about cryptos such as DAI. After watching these videos, you do a quiz to confirm what you've learned. If you complete the quiz, you will earn some crypto.

3. Staking your tokens or ETH

With some cryptocurrency and tokens, you can lock up all or a part of your crypto to secure the network. This process is known as staking. By locking up your cryptocurrency, you get rewarded with more crypto and tokens.

This gives you the opportunity to earn more while holding for the long-term. For example, staking your ETH with Lido.

Image: Staking ETH with Lido in the Argent App

4. Code to earn

This way to earn crypto is for developers. With Gitcoin, developers can earn cryptocurrency in three different ways.

1. Bounties: Earn crypto by solving issues for projects.
2. Sponsored hackathons: Protocols often sponsor hackathons for their project. For every solution you get, you collect rewards and crypto.
3. Grants: Gitcoin funds open-source software development for Web 3.0 using quadratic funding. If you have identified an issue, you can apply for a grant to get funding for that problem.

Image: Gitcoin.

5. Vote to earn

Kleros is a protocol that settles contract disputes. If you stake PNK, the token for Kleros, then you can become a juror. Being a juror lets you vote on disputes, and participating in this process, earns you PNK, as this video explains:

Another option is through the Aragon court which is like Kleros. To learn more, we’ve included an article.

6. Join a DAO

A DAO or Decentralized Autonomous Organization is a new type of organization that's democratic and transparent.

If there is a DAO that you're interested in, become an active participant and use whatever skills you have to help its development. If you can prove your value, then you can get paid work for your contributions.

7. Creating and selling NFTs

If you're an artist, NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are a great way to earn cryptocurrency. That's because NFTs offer benefits to artists in ways that weren't possible before. They are:

• Royalties: As an artist, you're encouraged to take a royalty fee for your work. Whenever one of your pieces sells, you can earn a small fee. Typically this fee is between 10-30%. And with EIP-2981, this royalty will be guaranteed across all marketplaces.
• Global audience: You can create work wherever and access a global market of enthusiast art collectors.
• All art: With NFTs, you can sell more than digital art. Some artists now sell redeemable NFTs that let the purchaser get a physical piece of work.
• Authenticity: As an artist, your work is tracked on the blockchain, meaning you can easily verify your work.  

8. Providing liquidity

Automated market makers (AMMs) like Uniswap or SushiSwap use liquidity pools to create trading pairs. Usually, liquidity gets added in a 50/50 ratio -- 50% DAI and 50% ETH for the DAI/ ETH trading pair, for example. When you provide liquidity, you earn a percentage of the trading fees, based on your share of the pool.

If you decide to provide liquidity, beware of impermanent loss. You may withdraw less crypto than you put in, depending on changes to the price of the crypto assets you deposited.  

Image: Providing liquidity for Uniswap V2 in the Argent App

9. Earning interest on your crypto

In DeFi, Dapps like Compound and AAVE allow you to earn a yield on your crypto. This yield is done by lending your crypto to others for a premium. It's done transparently and with smart contracts.

Image: Using Compound in the Argent app

If you want to try to maximize the yield on your crypto, you can use a yield aggregator like Yearn Finance or GRO. They work by pooling everyone's crypto together then finding the best place to earn interest at that time. This is more efficient than doing it yourself as costs are socialized. Both Yearn and GRO are available in the Argent app.

Image: Using Yearn in the Argent App

You can earn crypto by using centralized options like BlockFi or Celsius. But these options are prone to failure. These centralized options can close or restrict access to your account at any point. Be aware of these risks.

10. Yield farming

Yield farming is one step further from providing liquidity. Yield farming is riskier, which is why you can earn more for doing this. To increase the liquidity on protocols, some incentivize users to deposit liquidity to earn an additional token. This is often the protocols native governance token, for example, COMP with Compound or CRV with Curve.

You can then deposit this liquidity pool token on another protocol that auto-harvests the rewards to increase your liquidity pool positions. This increases your earning potential. They work by pooling all the liquidity together then automatically claiming the rewards to increase everyone's liquidity pool position. If you were to do this manually, it would cost more in gas and reduce your earning potential. So instead, you can do this on protocols like Harvest finance.

Image: Harvest Finance