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Cryptocurrency has always revolved around trading, whether it is through spot or leverage. While buying low and selling high can be profitable, it also has certain risks as one needs to have the discipline to be a great trader. Besides the risks in cryptocurrency trading, there is also a significant barrier that many people aren’t able to participate in as it demands capital to be risked. Luckily, cryptocurrency’s aim for mass adoption has allowed projects to think outside of the box to onboard new people into the ecosystem. Airdrops, P2E games, and DeFi protocols allow users to participate in crypto without a need for capital, skills, or significant risk exposure. Here are a few ways you can onboard yourself into crypto outside of cryptocurrency trading.
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Airdrops
Receiving cryptocurrency as a gift from early and new projects is an exciting way to earn in crypto. Airdrops are a way for projects and products to onboard users by incentivizing them with free native cryptocurrency. Before a project launches their token, a problem that they must first solve is user acquisition. To solve this problem, projects incentivize users to participate in their project by qualifying for their airdrops.
To qualify for airdrops, users are to perform different tasks such as staking, testnets, bridging assets, and other tasks. You can find potential airdrops and their tutorials on Airdrop.io and Paldo.io. Do note, some airdrops require a certain amount of capital to use their product with and all airdrops will require some gas fee depending on the network they’re built on. For those looking to enter crypto but lack capital to start, airdrops are a great way to start.
Play-to-Earn Games
Who doesn’t like to play games and earn assets in exchange for the effort and time spent? Play-to-Earn games are ways for users to earn cryptocurrency while grinding through the leaderboards of these games. A famous example of these play-to-earn games would be Ronin’s Axie Infinity, a game that dominated the P2E scene in the Philippines back in 2021.
Gamers would climb the leaderboards and earn in-game currency that you’re able to sell on the cryptocurrency market. While P2E games have been the way for many non-crypto natives to onboard crypto, its sustainability is still questionable as the game has to be dependent on its enjoyability rather than its profitability.
Nonetheless, P2E games seem to stay as it is one of the most invested narratives by venture capitals in the first quarter of 2024 at $273 million raised.
DeFi Protocols
DeFi protocols are a great way for cryptocurrency holders to make their cryptocurrencies work for them. DeFi protocols use your cryptocurrency to generate yield through lending protocols. This makes your cryptocurrency a yield-bearing asset which outperforms traditional finances. In these DeFi protocols, the cryptocurrency becomes split into a liquid staking token to ensure the staked cryptocurrency is secure and swappable back from its liquid staking token form.
As transactions are recorded on the blockchain, the security of DeFi protocols make it more robust and less risky. Projects such as Pendle, Lido, and many more offer these types of staking protocols with a varying APY depending on how early you are in the project or your risk tolerance. On top of the usual cryptocurrency staking, users are able to restake the same liquid staking tokens on different restaking protocols.
While there are numerous ways to earn cryptocurrency without trading, there are still significant barriers and risks to face. However, these methods of entering cryptocurrency help non-crypto natives onboard themselves into crypto in a way that is tailored to their liking. Whether it is starting crypto with no capital through airdrops, finding a fun and interactive way to onboard crypto, or to have a yield-bearing asset with minimized risks, crypto continues to innovate to find ways to onboard new people outside of trading.
Author
Clyde Marcel Melgar
Web3 Writer
BitDigest