Too Many Experts
Too Many Finfluencers
Too many airdrops
Too many referrals
Do I need to keep going or do you already know what I am talking about?
Of course, you do.
As always I am blabbering about crypto.
Even after years of being in this space I still feel like a little baby, a 100% noob.
Not that I did not read up on things. I probably spent most of my time getting into crypto. But the crypto-verse is like Star Trek going where no bald man has gone before.... a fast and unexplored new universe.... with new lifeforms and weird civilizations.
Finfluencers
Everyone is an expert in crypto even I am an expert although I do not look like one.
We are all here to grow our bags and then dump them on the fools that volunteer to be exit liquidity, and if you think you are not like that, you probably end up being exit liquidity anyway.
If you keep that in mind, Do Your Own Research, and do not buy a $1000 dollars of anything your favorite YouTuber is shilling but use multiple sources.
And even though I know this rule I still bought SatoshiVM because multiple sources were shilling and I see big potential for a BTC L2. Now I only invested $40 of which half after hearing what a mess this project´s launch had been.
Still, I bought a shill & did not properly research it.
Now we all make mistakes and you probably will also dig up some good projects that will give nice returns. But that is because the bulls are not on fire yet, hence don´t keep doing that.
Do it before the bulls truly get going, before BTC reaches its ATH, because after you risk paying too much for projects that have too little time to pump.
Also never trust an expert or analyst saying this coin has a 1000X potential. They all have and they all say that because those headlines make you click.
The Airdrop Hype
While the narrative that we the bulls are back is picking up so are the airdrops.
Now I have seen airdrops in my days, but it´s raining airdrops atm. And I have discovered a new species, airdrop farmers.
That is a civilization solely focused on finding new airdrops creating as many wallets as possible and then making ghost transactions, just to get free tokens. And pulling you in getting even bigger airdrops because of all the referrals.
Sounds like fun doesn´t it?
Well it might be if you know what you are doing and have a big audience that will use your referral link to join the airdrop, because referrals get you even more than the actual usage in many cases.
I guess that is why my TORUM feed is filled with new airdrops nowadays.
Do I have a problem with that?
Not really, I just don't have or make the time for it.
I do some playing around on testnets as I am still an airdrop baby and do not want to risk the little bit of crypto I have gathered so far because these airdrops are often related to new and buggy projects if not scam projects.
Of course, there are plenty of red flags so if you know what you´re doing and DYOR it´s probably only a minor minefield but I don´t want to blow up my stacks.
But there is an even darker side to dropping so much free money.
The Airdrop Dark Side
Almost 5 Billion in Airdrops in 2023 that money is flowing through space, but is it real...or is it created out of thin air and did it inflate the crypto market...to a point where the market has to deflate before continuing up?
This is one of the reasons why ALTS dropped 90% after the hype died out.
MEMECoins
That´s also why I am not investing in meme coins, and .....that is a lie.
I actually just bought $50 of DOGE and in all honesty, I can say I never held that much money in Meme coins in all my crypto life.
I know that memes can get you rich quick and rekt even quicker and as I am not in a hurry I prefer other niches in the cryptoverse.
So whywhy did I buy DOGE?
Well just in case, in case Elon is gonna use DOGE as a payment system on X or anything else. He confirmed he was still holding and I do not want to feel stupid 6 months from now if DOGE blows up due to getting a real use case.
At the same time, X may be dead before DOGE is integrated if it gets integrated with X at all of course.
Leverage is another No Go
I tried future trading and leverage in the last run, and it´s good. It saves me a trip to the casino. I normally don´t agree with people saying crypto is gambling. But leveraged Longs / Shorts do feel very much like going all in one black or red in Las Vegas.
So no airdrops, no meme coins, no influencers, and no leverage..... yes I do live a boring crypto life.
And I am considering playing with a bit of my profit to take leveraged trades once the Bull market is in full force and I am selling all my ALTs on their way up. Just to avoid having to buy coins at silly prices and still enabling the money I made to work for me.
So what are my niches?
In an earlier post, I wrote how I found myself not to be a trader anymore but more of an investor. When I started I would do 5-10% swingtrading as I had very little to start with.
Currently, I still do swingtrading but only when a coin increases 20% or more in 24 hours. Everything else I sell on the way up, as said last week I have set up my dumping goals and when they are hit I dump.
If that coin then drops 20% from where I dumped I will buy it back....for now.
Yes, for now, because I will stop doing that after the summer of 2024. Or at least it would need to be dropping more than 20%.
The reason is simple, after the halving things should change according to the cycle. It takes a few months, and those months happen to be in the summer.
Summer always sucks when it comes to crypto and I don´t expect a Defi summer or anything else this time.
Hence, the plan is:
Buyback during this post-ETF retracement that should last till early Feb at the latest. Then take profit using my dumping goals as we move towards the halving. Sell what I can before May, because I had to do that last year. I did not because I expected May to peak, but the run was already done in April.
Then buy back during the summer dump, which often is around the end of June. Sit on my coins till October and then sell all my ALTS between Oct 24 & Oct 25.
Don´t you love a simple plan?
Okay, so that is one niche.
Free Crypto
There is no such thing as free crypto!
If you use faucets, airdrops, staking, referrals it takes time, it causes a risk, and therefore is never FREE.
Now what I get for referrals and staking is very little but I love the fact that it´s free. So I will start putting my referrals back into my articles.
Not the dogy ones, just those I am using myself.
But my main 2nd niche is getting crypto for content.
There used to be great places to earn BitcoinCash but that well dried up during the bear season and it does not seem to be replenished now the bulls have started their grazing. But who knows one day Readcash and Noisecash will be revived although Marc De Mesel might not have enough BCH left to give away another couple of million for BCH promotion.
Nowadays it´s a bit harder, and the bull market might change that but atm I am scraping by.
I have grown very fond of HIVE as a place to swap my creativity for crypto mainly due to the very diverse community. Just for those who are interested, it´s hard to get going but if you really want I am willing to mentor you.
Does it make me money? After working like an idiot for 18 months HIVE made me 75 Dollars last month. And I spend 75 hours on HIVE. You do the math.
Then I use Publis0x, which allows me to read and earn and write and earn. Which is awesome, but not really profitable. Not sure if it´s me or they just reduced the payouts but last couple of weeks it seems to dwindle a bit.
In January I posted 6 articles, and I gave out some tips all adding up to $3.60 in a month and as I refurbished my HIVE posts I made about $1.10 per hour.
Publis0x has been around for years and allows you to learn about crypto, earn a bit of ETH, and Optimism without having to invest any of your own money. The best part is that even though people do not get anything for leaving comments, many leave interesting feedback allowing me to grow.
Recently I started using BULB.
Now how BULB will turn out financially, I have no clue. It´s a bit of a Mix between HIVE, Publish0x, and a pinch of TORUM because of the challenges that allow you to earn more BULB tokens.
The last place I trade my time and content for crypto is TORUM like everything in crypto the question is always will it be worth my effort? But Torum is a good place for finding new projects, getting honest feedback, and having an entertaining OG community with some interesting noob add ones as well.
The TORUM Social Fi space can be considered sort of a mix between X and Facebook in a web3 variant and during the previous bull run their XTM token pumped like.....it might never pump again but who knows.
Last month I made 136 XTM, which is about $5,30 I spend about 6 hours on Torum so again less than $1 p/h.
So I suck as a content creator as I make like 1 dollar an hour, but if those coins all 10X I might make a decent income doing something I really like.
Referrals
I use all the exchanges I am on as a referral:
BitVavo - Best European Exchange. easy on and off ramp with slightly higher trading fees (0.25 %) & Great Customer Service and great protection of your funds - https://bitvavo.com/?a=C21A94C2FD
Kucoin - Hong Kong. Okay, trading fees (0.1 %) & Contains a lot of low-cap gems. Customer Service takes time - https://www.kucoin.com/ucenter/signup?rcode=rJ821BX&lang=en_US&utm_source=friendInvite
Bitmart - Global (USA allowed) Low, trading fees if you use BMX (0.025 %) & Contains a wide variety of coins - https://www.bitmart.com/en?r=7XFCVy
BitGet - Just started on Bitget lots of promotions going on there and sometimes really early listings - https://www.bitget.com/referral/register?commonCode=71YYWY6D
BitVavo Exchange- Best European Exchange. easy on and off ramp with slightly higher trading fees (0.25 %) & Great Customer Service - https://bitvavo.com/?a=C21A94C2FD
Kucoin Exchange - Hong Kong. Okay, trading fees (0.1 %) & Contains a lot of low-cap gems. Customer Service takes time - https://www.kucoin.com/ucenter/signup?rcode=rJ821BX&lang=en_US&utm_source=friendInvite
Bitmart - Global (USA allowed) Low, trading fees if you use BMX (0.025 %) & Contains a wide variety of coins - https://www.bitmart.com/en?r=7XFCVy
BitGet - Just started on Bitget lots of promotions going on there and sometimes really early listings - https://www.bitget.com/referral/register?commonCode=71YYWY6D)
I also use Binance and BuyBit but I have no positives or negatives about those so far.
And in addition, I have been making a good little bit of money for BAKE DFI especially since their onboarding bonus is kinda awesome. Invest $50, and get $30 in their DFI coin. And you can take your investment out at any time keeping the $30 DFI bonus, and everyone you refer makes you money every week.
Scouting for Cool Low & Micro caps
Again I am no daredevil, simply because I do not have the time to focus on everything so I am not bridging from liquidity pools and buying on DEX´s which again is something I might start doing when in this bull run.
I just am too caught up in my not-so-awesome day job, writing and creating content to make the time for new things. But the whole DEX thing is on my to-do list as I do love scouting for low caps with large potential.
I don´t dedicate a lot to these endeavors but they often pay off due to the high volatility because of low liquidity.
Some of my possible gems atm are $GRAPE $GTT $SHRAP all three are gambling and gaming-related which is still one of the narratives I expect to boom when retail comes back. Both GRAPE and GTT have been sufficiently volatile to allow me to swing trade and make back a large part of my investment. SHRAP so far has been very stable, but as the game is still to be released I practice my patience.
The time I have left I spent learning about projects and keeping up with the latest narratives. That allows me to swap the coins that are related to old narratives for newer ones and it´s not a loss if you swap only if you sell. This has been pretty good so far, I got in on time on things like RUNE, RNDR, UNIBOT, and ARB. All projects with interesting potential.
Now if you want to know what other narratives I am looking at, the below, even though not mine holds pretty much everything I have my eyes set on:
Bikini Bottom Line
The Bottom Line is that if you are into crypto already at this point in time, you are nice and early to build positions you can sell in the year to come.
Everything is still relatively cheap, so even if you buy a mistake it might still make you money.
But the main thing is, don´t chase what others are chasing.
Find those niches you are comfortable with. And only once the money is rolling in allow yourself to experiment a bit because this crypto space is so big....you can´t be everywhere.
You Should Go Your Own Way!
Thank goodness you made it till the end Pees, Love and I am out of here!
[Source Pic](All pics by MYI & AI unless watermarked or mentioned)