How to Make Money from Cryptocurrency from Scratch: 10 Ways

In 2011, the Bitcoin price first surpassed $1, and in 2025 it reached $126,198. Over these years, the capitalisation of cryptocurrencies overtook many large companies; at its peak it amounted to more than $3 billion.

All this indicates that making money from cryptocurrency from scratch is possible, and we will outline 10 ways to do it.

Is it really possible to make money with cryptocurrency?

To understand whether you can make money with cryptocurrency, it is enough to look at the numbers, for example, at the history of Bitcoin’s price surges Bitcoin:

• in 2011, the BTC price moved from $0.01 to $5 — its price increased by 500 times;

• in 2013, over two years, it rose to $1,000 — another 200 times;

• in 2017, after a prolonged downturn, the BTC price reached $17,700;

• in 2021 its price moved from $5–11 thousand to a peak of $69,000;

• in 2024 it reached a new all-time high — $107,822.

Despite dramatic drops, the Bitcoin price not only shows resilience but, with each cycle, reaches ever greater heights. The same applies to other cryptocurrencies, for example, Ethereum — from $1.2 to $4,600 (3,800 times), or Ripple — from $0.004 to $0.5 (1,250 times).

The numbers show that earning from cryptocurrency from scratch is possible. Moreover, this does not require anything highly complex — you can simply HODL* cryptocurrency. But there are other ways of earning that can deliver even higher returns. We will consider virtually all popular methods, differing by level of complexity and risk, and you can decide which suits you best.

How much do people earn from crypto?

The first question beginners ask is: how much do people make from cryptocurrency? The answer is not straightforward — you can make money quickly by investing in cryptoassets, but you can just as easily lose it. Much depends on your skills and your ability to analyse the situation in the crypto market.

Therefore, before you start investing in crypto, you should absorb a few simple rules:

• Do not invest more money than you can afford to lose;

• Never invest borrowed funds;

• Diversify your investment portfolio — do not put all your money into a single cryptocurrency.

These rules will not protect you from losses in the event of a market correction, but they will help minimise potential drawdowns.

Some methods carry minimal risks or none at all — we will mention those too. You may earn $100 or $10,000 — this depends on various factors: the method and cryptoasset chosen, experience, the amount invested, and more.

How to make money with cryptocurrency from scratch: the 10 best ways

Let’s look at nine ways to earn cryptocurrency that involve active actions on the user’s part. Some of the methods listed will require investment — in hardware, cryptocurrencies, staking, or launching your own project.

1. How to earn on exchanges: arbitrage and trading

From traditional finance to crypto have come methods such as arbitrage and trading:

• Arbitrage — generating profit from the price difference for the same assets on different crypto platforms;

• Trading — generating profit from medium-term or short-term price movements in an asset. Given cryptocurrencies’ high volatility, this method of earning has become especially popular among risk-taking traders.

Both methods are practised on crypto exchanges or services that support rapid asset swaps and extensive market statistics, such as the Trustee Plus platform.

2. Investing in cryptocurrency

Investing is the simplest way to make money with cryptocurrencies. All you need to do is buy cryptocurrency and hold it. The best option is to use a crypto wallet — the safest way to store digital assets. Wallets such as Trustee Plus and Trustee Wallet allow you to buy cryptocurrency directly in the wallet.

How much can you earn?

It depends on how cryptocurrencies grow and on the investor’s patience. Let’s calculate how much you could have earned had you invested in Bitcoin a year ago. Suppose on 1 January 2023 you bought 1 BTC for $16,500 excluding fees. In March 2024 the price reached $73,737 and you decided to sell. Your profit would be:

1 BTC × $73,737 − $16,500 = $57,237, excluding transaction fees.

Over this period, the profit — regardless of the amount — would have been +247%. And to achieve this result, you would have needed to perform just two actions: buy and sell the asset.

Pros and cons of investing

3. Earning without investment: faucets, airdrops, and bounties

You do not necessarily have to invest your own funds in cryptocurrencies: you can participate in giveaways and receive coins or tokens for free by performing simple actions such as subscribing, liking, reposting, or creating content. You can receive a reward for each action completed.

Sometimes the creators of airdrops launch referral contests where you can win a significant number of tokens. Or they launch puzzles — for example, in 2023 Yaga Labs launched a series of weekly quests with a prize of 0.12 BTC.

How much can you earn?

The conditions and requirements for bounty participants are higher, but you can earn more than with airdrops. The risk with airdrops and bounties is that you may spend time and earn nothing if the project whose tokens are being distributed fails to develop and those tokens never appear on any exchange. Therefore, returns range from zero to tens of thousands of dollars from a single distribution.

For example, the Uniswap project distributed 400 UNI to every user who had made at least one confirmed transaction on the platform. At the time of distribution, these tokens were worth about $1,300. Had you received them and sold a year after the drop, you could have earned around $11,000 for a simple swap. Of course, there are more unsuccessful project launches, not to mention the high activity of fraudulent schemes. Nevertheless, with proper fundamental analysis of a project, you can find genuinely valuable assets such as UNI or 1INCH.

Another option for those just getting acquainted with cryptocurrency is crypto faucets. The idea is that you receive a small amount at set intervals, with a chance that a larger amount may “accumulate”. This is the most direct answer to how to make money from cryptocurrency from scratch.

We will not examine this method in detail, as it is difficult to earn substantial sums with it. But for beginners who want to obtain their first cryptocurrency quickly, simply, and without investment, it can work as a first experiment.

Pros and cons of crypto giveaways

4. Staking

The first method of obtaining cryptocurrency was mining — the process of validating new blocks on the network, through which miners receive rewards. But with each passing year, this process requires more computing power and electricity.

It has been succeeded by staking — the process of supporting a blockchain’s operation for a reward that does not require expensive hardware, electricity costs, or lengthy configuration. To earn, it is enough to buy cryptocurrency and lock it on your wallet address for a period. Most crypto wallets support this, for example, in Trustee Wallet you can stake Tron (TRX). More in this article.

How much can you earn?

Staking is a solid answer to how a beginner can make money from crypto, as yields range from 1% to 20% per annum and are not fixed. Almost all PoS blockchains operate on the same principle: the more cryptoassets staked, the greater the rewards. And if the cryptoasset’s price rises, staking income becomes more tangible. Also consider compound interest.

Let’s calculate how much you could have earned if at the start of 2023 you had bought and staked Solana (SOL) — one of the largest digital assets in this sector.

So, you acquired 1,004 SOL at $9.96 for a total of $10,000. The yield from staking Solana is 13% per annum. Suppose your validator, to whom you delegated your coins, takes 10% of the profit. The annual yield would be 11.7%. And that is without compounding, which would make it higher. Let’s calculate how many SOL would accrue over a year:

1,004 SOL × 11.7% = 1,174 SOL

The price of the cryptocurrency in January 2024 was about $90. Thus, the profit from investment and staking combined would be:

1,174 SOL × $90 − $10,000 = $95,660

An investment in Solana would have paid off almost 9.5 times. Had you simply invested in Solana without staking, the result would have been $80,360-$15,300 less.

Pros and cons of staking

5. Investing in DeFi projects and NFTs

An excellent addition to a classic crypto portfolio is investment in the growing DeFi sector or in NFTs:

• DeFi — a decentralised financial system, an alternative to the banking sector. Major decentralised projects, for example the exchange Uniswap, issue their own tokens in which you can invest;

• NFT — non-fungible tokens that sparked a wave of digital art. Many celebrities, artists, and large companies release their own collections. Their prices can rise by hundreds of per cent in a short time.

How much can you earn?

It depends on the cryptocurrency’s price. During a bull market, the prices of popular DeFi platform tokens multiplied. Some rose by several thousand per cent in just a month. For example, the Yearn.Finance (YFI) token increased by more than 30,000%, and for a time even exceeded the price of Bitcoin.

Let’s calculate how much your capital would have grown if you had invested $10,000 in the MKR token at the start of 2023. Back then it was $510, and by 1 January 2024 it had reached $2,266.

($10,000 ÷ $510) × $2,266 − $10,000 = $34,431

It is harder to calculate profit from NFTs, as each token or collection has its own specifics. It is enough to note that the most expensive NFT was sold for $91.8 million.

Pros and cons of investing in DeFi and NFTs

6. Investing in ICOs

An Initial Coin Offering — or ICO — is one of the riskiest ways to invest in digital assets. On the one hand, you get the chance to buy tokens at the lowest price and multiply your capital. On the other hand, you risk losing part of your funds if the tokens are not in demand, or even losing everything if the token is not listed on crypto exchanges.

How much can you earn?

You can lose all your investment — or multiply it several thousand times. For example, the third-largest cryptocurrency by capitalisation, Binance Coin (BNB), cost just $0.10 during its public token sale, and on 1 January 2024 its price was $333-3,330 times higher. If you had invested $100 in BNB at the ICO, by early 2024 your capital would have grown to $333,000.

Pros and cons of investing in ICOs

7. Cryptocurrency mining

The earliest cryptocurrencies, such as Bitcoin, can be mined using specialised hardware. But substantial profits require significant investment in equipment and electricity.

Mining efficiency also depends on the country. In August 2023, CoinGecko analysts calculated the cost of mining 1 BTC in different countries for solo miners. In Lebanon, BTC could be mined for just $260, whereas in Italy it was $208,600. In Ukraine, for example, the cost of mining was $10,730.

In addition, hardware becomes obsolete and its efficiency declines over time, which affects profitability. There are two types of mining: cloud, or with your own equipment. Let’s briefly consider both options.

Classic mining

This option is more complex, as it requires hardware configuration and software installation. In addition, the equipment must be maintained so that it operates as long as possible: uninterrupted power and robust cooling are essential. There are hosting services, however: you simply buy the hardware and pay rent, while specialists handle configuration and maintenance. Costs will be higher in that case.

Earning from cryptocurrency mining can be divided into several stages:

• Purchase and installation of an ASIC miner or a GPU farm;

• Configuration of the hardware and mining software;

• Launching the mining process.

Cloud mining

This process is entirely passive. You purchase cloud contracts and receive mining income, paying a fee for electricity. The advantage of cloud mining is that you do not need to buy equipment outright — to start a contract, it is enough to pay for a minimum hashrate, which costs around $10-$20 depending on the service.

How much can you earn?

Mining profitability depends on the cryptocurrency price and mining difficulty, as well as electricity costs. The higher the difficulty and the lower the price, the lower the income. You can estimate profitability using mining calculators.

Bitcoin started 2024 at $42,360; under such conditions, BTC mining is profitable. It is important to calculate the cost of the farm, the electricity price, and the payback period of the equipment based on the current price. It is also important to consider the dynamics of mining difficulty.

In 2024 the reward for creating a new block is 6.25 BTC, or about $165,000. In April 2024, after the Bitcoin halving, the reward will halve — to 3.125 BTC.

Pros and cons of mining

8. Referral and affiliate programmes

Crypto exchanges, wallets, merchants, and other crypto services invite users to join affiliate programmes and earn in cryptocurrency by referring customers. The advantage of this approach is the ability to earn from cryptocurrency without investment and without risk — even without deep industry knowledge.

How people earn from referral programmes:

1. When you download a wallet, you receive a special “referral link”. When users register through it, they become your referrals.

2. Share the link by any lawful means: send it to friends in messages, post it on social media or forums, and so on. If you have your own blog or website, you can promote the link there. Even incentivised traffic is often acceptable, since services earn regardless.

3. When a user registers via your link and makes a purchase, sale, or swap, you receive income from each of their transactions.

The Trustee Plus digital finance platform also has a referral programme. To take part, register and pass verification, then:

1. Submit a request via Support — click the “dialogue” icon in the top right of any app screen and choose “Chat”;

2. Wait for confirmation from Support that the programme has been activated;

3. Get your personal referral link in the app;

4. Share links and earn — 45% of Trustee’s income from transactions.

More on how to start making money from cryptocurrency from scratch by inviting referrals can be found here.

How much can you earn?

In short — from zero to infinity. It depends on how much a company pays, how many referrals you attract, and their turnover. Some companies pay 20% of their profit, others up to 50%. Here is a simple example:

You invite 1,000 people, each of whom buys and sells $1,000 worth of cryptocurrency per month on average. The service pays up to 45% of its revenue for each transaction. In this case, your monthly earnings would be:

1,000 people × $1,000 × 45% = 4,500 USDT

In Trustee Plus, the referral reward is accrued from the income generated by your invitees’ transactions and is split into two levels — 20% and 25%. There is no upper cap on earnings, making the referral system an excellent source of passive income.

Pros and cons of affiliate programmes

9. Your own business

You can launch a business in cryptocurrency by creating your own service. The options are limited only by the entrepreneur’s imagination:

• Launch your own blockchain project and issue a cryptocurrency;

• Create a decentralised application (DApp) on a blockchain;

• Open an online shop and accept cryptocurrency payments;

• Release your own NFT collection, for example on the Ordinals protocol on Bitcoin, which was relevant in 2024;

• Develop a blockchain game with an in-game digital economy

The advantage is that there is still relatively little competition in this field, and many users would find it convenient to pay for goods and services in cryptocurrency. For merchants, it is also beneficial not to pay banks for the use of accounts registered with them.

How much can you earn?

There is no ceiling on earnings for your own business. The more you invest, the more you can receive in return. But business involves risk, so there is also a chance of losses and bankruptcy — this depends on many factors: the team’s experience, the robustness of the business plan and planning, and marketing.

Also consider volatility risks. Suppose you buy goods and sell them for Bitcoin, receiving 200% of the amount invested after expenses. If the cryptocurrency price doubles, the revenue becomes 500%. If the price falls threefold, you break even. But if the price collapses four or five times, you incur a loss. If you are worried about business losses, use risk-management strategies such as hedging*. This will protect your assets from sharp price swings.

Pros and cons of your own crypto business

10. Earning from memecoins

Memecoins are cryptocurrencies created from popular Internet memes or jokes which, thanks to community support, can show significant growth in capitalisation. In 2024, memecoins became one of the main trends in the crypto market.

• Dogecoin, the most famous memecoin, reached seventh place among all cryptocurrencies with a capitalisation of $56.9 billion, showing 405.5% growth over the year. At the start of the year Dogecoin traded at $0.091, and in December it reached an all-time high of $0.46. Elon Musk, who repeatedly supported the token, played a significant role in popularising Dogecoin.
• Another example of success is Shiba Inu (SHIBA), which took 15th place by capitalisation ($15.2 billion) and grew by about 210% from the start of 2024.

Overall, the GMCI MEME index from The Block, which tracks the most popular memecoins, rose by 398.63% over the year, confirming growing interest in this segment.

The memecoin trend remains relevant. Particular attention was drawn to the $TRUMP memecoin, created on 17 January ahead of the inauguration of the new US President. In just three days its capitalisation reached $9 billion, making early investors millionaires.

Strategies for earning from memecoins:

1. Early-stage investing. Buying memecoins immediately after launch can deliver high returns if the project gains popularity.

2. Speculating on volatility. Thanks to sharp price swings, traders can profit using short-term strategies.

3. Trend analysis. Follow news, social media, and influential figures whose activity can drive the growth of a particular memecoin.

4. Portfolio diversification. Allocating funds across several memecoins reduces risks tied to the collapse of a single project.

Pros and cons of earning from memecoins

Conclusions

In this article, we have considered both active and passive ways to make money from cryptocurrency from scratch. Most of these methods require initial investment and deep immersion in the field (mining, launching your own project), while some are suitable even for beginners without any experience (staking, investing) or for those with experience and resources from other areas (referral programmes). Everyone can find what suits them best.