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What Are the Top 5 Best Ways to Get Rich in Crypto?
If you’re looking to go to the moon with your digital assets, then be prepared for a bumpy ride. It’s not as simple to get rich in crypto as it may seem when you hear about the random person on the other side of the world who happened to buy an asset at the right time and suddenly has millions. The Bitcoin for a Lamborghini days seem in the distant past, with an assortment of cryptocurrencies also seeing fairly significant spikes in value over the past 5 years. That doesn’t mean that it’s not possible to get rich in crypto, and the reality is we’re still very early in terms of adoption.
However, it’s important to keep in mind that actually hitting the lottery when it comes to a crypto investment is far easier said than done. Due diligence and only risking what you can afford to lose are two of the most important things to do. With all that said, let’s look at five of the best ways you can get rich in crypto.
Best Ways to Get Rich in Crypto Ranked
Below we’ve outlined five of the best ways to get rich in crypto, starting with the riskiest ways and becoming more secure as the list goes on. There’s obviously no such thing as a sure thing (especially in crypto) so proceed with caution:
5. NFTs
Non-fungible tokens, or NFTs, became incredibly popular as speculative investments following the success of Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), and a variety of other NFT projects that made their holders fairly good returns. Due to the success of these projects, many other NFT projects have sprung up, with many people buying NFTs of all sorts of varieties in the hopes that they’ll be able to flip them for more money. But the reality is this is incredibly hard to do with any success.
Even a project as popular as BAYC has died out for the most part. Sure, there are still sales of the NFTs on OpenSea, but a simple look at price data shows that the price you paid in April was two times as much as you’d pay today. The downtrend is likely to continue.
You never really know when you’ll be the one stuck holding an NFT that is now worthless or undesirable. Yes, there will be NFTs that will be valuable long-term, but they’ll likely be tied to real world items, such as property, not digital images. NFTs are one of the riskiest ways to try and make money in crypto, though it’s fairly interchangeable with number four on this list.
4. Memecoins
Memecoins like Dogecoin (DOGE) and Shiba Inu (SHIB) hit incredible all-time highs in 2021, making millionaires out of those that happened to have hoarded either. DOGE’s success led to the success of SHIB, with both instances essentially creating a whole array of other memecoins which traders have bought and sold with relative success, the latest being Pepe (PEPE).
However, it’s important to keep in mind that these sorts of successes are rare, not common. Anyone that bought SHIB or DOGE anywhere close to their all-time highs are so far in the black now that it’s scary (DOGE now isn’t even with 10% of its high for example). Yes, it’s possible to buy in at the right time and be a winner, but the odds are pretty low, and you’re far more likely to just lose all your investment. Buying memecoins is a complete gamble.
3. DeFi
Decentralized Finance, or DeFi, covers an array of decentralized applications (dApps) such as decentralized cryptocurrency exchanges (DEXs), lending platforms, yield aggregators, and automated market makers (AMMs). DeFi platforms provide you with opportunities to leverage your crypto to generate passive income returns, which is its main draw. This can be done by providing liquidity to a DEX/AMM, providing liquidity to a lending platform, farming, borrowing, and more.
There is a lot less risk to earning money through DeFi than through the two methods before this one, though there are still risks. Depending on the platform you can earn anywhere from 1-40%, with the riskier earning being at the higher range and the more stable ones being lower. There is also the potential for a DeFi platform to be hacked, which is something to consider when putting a lot of funds into one for passive income. DeFi is less of a get rich quick strategy, and more of an investment into a platform and its underlying blockchain network.
2. Staking
Not to be confused with providing liquidity to a DeFi platform, which is often also referred to as staking, staking means helping to secure a blockchain network. This is done by either delegating your share of an asset to a validator (less technical), or by being a validator yourself (more technical). In return, you receive that same asset in proportion to the stake you provided, at a rate that depends on the blockchain. It can be done with Ethereum, Cardano, Solana, and more.
For example with Ethereum you need 32 ETH to be a validator (in addition to hardware). This will earn you about 4.5% APR (other networks range from 1-10%). But if you don’t have 32 ETH you can delegate your share to a staking pool that is run by a platform such as Lido. You then pay them a commission, and the rest is split between the pool members.
The only risks with staking are that either you as a validator or who you’ve delegated to, are offline or do something else negative. This possibly results in rewards slashing depending on the blockchain network. However, your principle isn’t at risk, so it’s relatively safe.
The other downside with staking is that when the asset you’re staking goes down in value, then so do the rewards.
1. Holding (HODL)
Hold On for Dear Life (HODL) is one of the safest and most simple strategies for getting rich in crypto. HODLing means holding onto your investments, even if significantly down on your investment, and not trying to use them for leverage or DeFi purposes. Holding can be combined with staking assuming the asset has it.
Selling due to panic or fear, isn’t advisable unless you need the funds (though you shouldn’t be investing money you need), or are planning to buy back in at a lower price. Additionally, the latter doesn’t always happen, people often sell right before the price starts to go back up.
For example, if you sold Bitcoin when it dropped to $15k in 2022 you have to pay more to buy it back because it hasn’t gotten that low since.
It’s not fancy, but think about if you HODLed Bitcoin bought in 2013. There’s a good chance you’d be up 300X.
Of course HODLing isn’t perfect either if you pick a lesser-known crypto that dies off. That’s why long-term HODLing is often suggested for crypto blue chips like Bitcoin or Ethereum.
