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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 cashback apps, it's possible to reap the rewards of free crypto.
Now that more people are embracing the blockchain, earning free cryptocurrency is increasingly possible. Whether you're an experienced crypto investor or new to the game, you can pad your portfolio with free cryptocurrencies if you know where to look.
How To Earn Free Crypto: 16 Savvy Tips
While you're probably not going to strike it rich by scoring free crypto, boosting your crypto assets is a great way for seasoned investors to bolster their crypto portfolio or for newbies to get in on the game. But before you start pursuing free coins, here are some words of caution.
First, digital assets are nothing, if not volatile. At the time of writing, Bitcoin is worth approximately $16,106, down about 70% from its all-time high of nearly $69,000. However, Crypto prices can shoot up quickly, so be prepared for a potentially bumpy ride.
Second, it's always important to be cautious when seeking out free crypto, as some promises could be too good to be true. Free airdrops, for example, can be legitimate opportunities but are often scams.
When pursuing free crypto, be careful about sharing sensitive personal information, such as your Social Security number or bank account details, if you haven't done your due diligence.
Now that you've been appropriately cautioned, here are 16 simple ways to earn free crypto, including some critical advice on minimizing risk and tracking your taxable income.
1. Earn Rewards From Freecash
Freecashpartners with market research companies to provide simple tasks like online offers and surveys that you can complete in your spare time to earn rewards. You'll earn Freecash coins – Freecash's digital currency, which you can cash in for cryptocurrency, gift cards, and other free stuff.
Signing up for Freecash is one of the easiest ways to start earning. Once you open a free account, 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 earn that in five to 10 minutes.
Freecash has no minimum withdrawal limits, so you can begin redeeming your coins for the cryptocurrency of your choice starting at just $0.10. Choose from Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, or Dogecoin. In addition, Freecash offers an additional incentive of $500 per day and $2,500 per month to its top eligible users.
Earn Free Crypto With Freecash
2. Earn Crypto With Cashback Apps
Many free browser extensions will rebate a percentage of your purchase when you shop at one of their partner stores. However, if you'd prefer to earn free crypto instead of cash, you can do so with Lolli, a free extension for Chrome or Firefox.
When you shop with one of Lolli's retail partners (including Nike, Chewy, Priceline, and more), you can elect to get “Bitcoin Back.” Earn anywhere from 1% to 30% of your total purchase price. Once the rewards are reflected in your Lolli account balance, you can transfer them to your crypto wallet or exchange.
If you'd prefer to stick with a traditional cashback app such as Drop or Rakuten, you'll earn rewards in cash, which you can use to purchase cryptocurrency. Rakuten also offers new users a $30 sign up bonus when they spend their first $30 using Rakuten.
3. Open a Crypto Card
Using a crypto debit or credit card is likely the easiest way to earn free crypto. Like a traditional rewards credit card, cryptocurrency credit or debit cards earn you cryptocurrency rewardson your purchases and require no additional effort.
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's worthwhile to keep one open for a long time if you're looking to earn free crypto. But, at the same time, you don't want to overspend to earn cryptocurrency.
Spend only what you can afford to pay off each month to avoid the high APY (annual percentage yield) on 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 using your referral link. Please read over the terms of use for these bonuses, as they may require you to complete specific tasks to claim them, such as purchasing a certain amount of new coins within a particular period.
These cryptocurrency exchanges 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 To Trade for Crypto
Similarly, you could earn sign-up bonuses of stock in exchange for opening a new stock brokerage account, specifically one that also provides a cryptocurrency exchange. Then, once you've received yourfree stock, you can sell it and use the proceeds to buy crypto.
Thesebrokerages offer free stockwhen you sign-up and also allow cryptocurrency transactions 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 may be eligible 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, and connect it to your internet service. However, once you get everything up and running, you canpassively earnfree Helium coins daily.
As of the time of writing, one Helium coin is priced at $2.46, though it hit $50 in November 2021.
7. Sign Up for Dimo Car
Like Helium, DIMO is building an IoT platform that involves drivers collecting and sharing 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.
You can start the signup processhereif you're interested in participating.
8. Watch Videos and Take Surveys
Some crypto platforms offer rewards in the form of free crypto to users who watch educational videos, take surveys or play games on their sites. 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)
However, long-term investors may want to choose to exchange any altcoins earned for something like Bitcoin or Ethereum. But remember that trading coinsfalls 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 could loan your cryptocurrency holdings through a lending program like Gemini Earn or BlockFi. As with any lender, you can earn interest back on the amount — with an interest rate as high as 8.05% APY with Gemini Earn or 8.0% with the BlockFi Interest Account.
Of course, lending out your crypto also comes with the risk that you won't get the entire 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 isthrough crypto stakingor leaving your holdings in your wallet. Letting your crypto sit untouched helps maintain the blockchain, so you mayearn rewardsor 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
Publish0Xis a cryptocurrency platform that shares its ad revenue as free crypto with its writers and readers. Sign up for a free account using your email address or Facebook or Twitter login credentials.
If you want to become an author, you'll submit an author application and be notified of whether or not you've been accepted within 24 hours. Then, 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 the article was about, so you might get 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
LunarCrushtracks 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 crypto market, but it could also earn you free crypto in the form of LUNR tokens.
LunarCrush gives out 65,000 LUNR tokens to its site users daily 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 theBrave 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.
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. 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 $0.0405.
15. Play Games on Your Phone
Surveys and quizzes aren't the only ways to earn free crypto — you can alsoget rewarded by playing mobile games. So whether you're into strategy, crossword puzzles, or fighting your way to victory in an anime world, you can find a game where you can win free crypto prizes.
Here are a few mobile games worth checking out:
16. Get in on a Free Airdrop
When holding initial coin offerings (ICO) to launch a new crypto coin, companies sometimes offer crypto giveaways in what is known as an airdrop. People who can get in on the airdrop may experience developers sending free crypto directly to their cryptocurrency wallets.
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. In addition, you can learn about airdrops on sites likeairdrops.ioorCoinMarketCap'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 manyairdrop scams online, so be careful about sharing sensitive information. Even if you find an airdrop opportunity on a trusted site, you must do your research to confirm its legitimacy before participating.
Bottom Line
While there are legitimate ways to earn free crypto, it's always important to proceed cautiously. Make sure you trust the source before sharing any sensitive information and only invest what you can afford to lose.
Cryptocurrency will likely remain a volatile investment which can be especially risky when you're purchasing new altcoins – if you're unable to trade your free cryptocurrency on a major exchange, it may not be worth the effort.
Finally, remember that cryptocurrency earnings are typically treated as taxable income, so keep a record of your investments ahead of tax season. Tracking your crypto holdings can ensure that your assets are earning you more than they cost you.
