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How to earn cryptocurrency

Find out how to get started earning crypto with staking, lending, crypto savings accounts and more.

As decentralized finance has gained popularity over the last few years, there are now lots of ways to put your assets to work. In this guide, we’ll walk you through some of the most popular options to show you how to earn cryptocurrency if you’re already holding it.

Disclaimer: This page is not financial advice or an endorsement of digital assets, providers or services. Digital assets are volatile and risky, and past performance is no guarantee of future results. Potential regulations or policies can affect their availability and services provided. Talk with a financial professional before making a decision. Finder or the author may own cryptocurrency discussed on this page.

What is crypto earning?

Crypto earning is a way to put your digital assets to work to passively grow your holdings.

The simplest way to do this is to deposit your assets into an eligible exchange account or use a specialized lending service. If you’re more experienced with crypto, you can also use a personal wallet to access blockchain-based services to generate yield, but this tends to come with higher risk.

Potential earnings vary widely depending on the method used, with riskier options known for offering rates north of 20% APY.

In a period of low-interest rates and high inflation, crypto earning offers an alternative to traditional savings accounts – but it’s not without some unique risks.

How to earn crypto

There are 7 main ways to earn cryptocurrency:

1. Crypto savings accounts

Crypto saving accounts work by holding or locking up your assets in return for receiving a fixed or variable reward rate. Many major crypto exchanges now offer this type of yield-bearing product, which is often marketed as an “earn account.” In some cases, you can even deposit US dollars into an account to earn yield without owning any crypto first.

But unlike a high-interest account held with your bank, crypto savings accounts tend to come without safety nets. Very few account providers offer insurance in the event of your funds being compromised.

Read our detailed section on risks below to make sure you understand the pros and cons.

Crypto savings accounts in the US

2. Staking

Staking cryptocurrency is the process of locking up your assets in a smart contract to assist a network with verifying transactions. It’s a way of getting involved in the fundamental operation of a blockchain without requiring significant capital. Most modern blockchains have replaced mining with staking because it’s more environmentally friendly.

By lending your crypto to the blockchain, you become eligible to receive freshly minted coins (known as block rewards) and a portion of gas fees. Potential earnings are determined by the number of other people staking, gas fees and network congestion.

Staking can be performed through eligible exchanges and wallets or through a service like Lido.

Read our full guide on crypto staking

3. Crypto debit cards

Crypto debit cards are one of the most accessible crossroads between traditional finance and cryptocurrency. They work just like any other Visa or Mastercard, except that they can be loaded up with crypto and used at supported merchants across the world.

Crypto cards often come with a set of unique rewards to incentivise spending, often in the form of crypto cashback. For example, Crypto.com’s debit card offers a variable cashback rate in the form of CRO on eligible purchases as well as Spotify and Netflix subscription rebates.

Compare crypto debit cards

4. Lending

Crypto lending is the process of lending crypto or fiat currency to borrowers on an eligible exchange or specialized lending service. Lenders deposit their cryptocurrency into a pool that borrowers can access.

As the loan is paid back, lenders earn a percentage of the interest repaid by the borrower, which varies based on the loan size, how much collateral is in the pool and the asset being borrowed.

There are unique risks involved for both lenders and borrowers, so read our guide below to weigh these up first.

How crypto lending works

5. Yield farming

Yield farming is one of the most advanced options for earning crypto and isn’t suitable for everyone. It involves locking your cryptocurrency in a protocol, known as an automated market maker (AMM), which provides liquidity for users in need of assets for other activities.

Liquidity providers then receive a portion of the transaction fee as a reward. Bonus tokens may also be issued by the AMM as an added incentive. Experienced liquidity providers often move liquidity between high-yield pools to take advantage of market movements and to maximise returns. There are even applications and algorithms that can do this automatically, known as yield aggregators.

Higher earnings may be possible with yield farming, but it’s also a much higher risk strategy, so read our full guide first.

Dive deeper into yield farming

6. Mining

Mining is the process of high-powered computers solving complex mathematical problems to verify transactions on the blockchain. In return, miners receive a portion of cryptocurrency, sometimes called a block reward.

Mining popular coins like Bitcoin requires a hefty investment, as the computational power required to earn a decent return can’t be achieved with a personal computer. For this reason, it’s no longer a viable way to earn crypto for most people.

Certain blockchains like Monero and Ravencoin have attempted to limit the use of mining farms and to make earning crypto with the right GPU and know-how still possible.

7. Earn free crypto

There are also plenty of ways to earn free crypto without using your existing assets. You might have already heard of popular options like play-to-earn (P2E), using a dedicated browser extension or performing microtasks, but there are plenty of others.

It’s worth keeping in mind that most ways to earn free crypto are less profitable than the options we’ve listed above, and the space is particularly susceptible to scams.

Legitimate ways to earn free crypto

Know the risks

Putting your crypto to work to earn generous passive returns may sound appealing, but it’s not without risks. Make sure you fully understand them before placing your assets into any kind of crypto-earning product.

  • No FDIC protection. The US government’s Financial Claims Scheme guarantees member bank-held assets up to $250,000, but crypto savings accounts and other earning protocols aren’t covered. In the event that your digital assets are lost or stolen, you could lose your capital. As the market matures, some popular crypto platforms have introduced insurance funds to mitigate against this risk, but it often doesn’t apply to earning accounts – so read the fine print.
  • Counterparty risk. Entrusting your funds to any third-party platform – no matter how reputable – puts you at risk of loss. In the event of theft or platform insolvency, you’re unlikely to be able to recover assets held on an exchange or in an earning account.
  • Market volatility. Cryptocurrency is volatile and unpredictable. Many earning protocols require you to lock up your crypto for a fixed period. If the price of your cryptocurrency drops, you risk losing some or all of your capital. Stablecoins – cryptocurrencies pegged to an underlying asset like the US dollar – are often used by crypto-earning products to help shield against some of this volatility.
  • New technologies. Smart contracts are what make earning with crypto through staking, lending and yield farming possible. However, they’re still a relatively new piece of tech that’s vulnerable to bugs and hacking. Insecure smart contracts are nearly always the point of attack for bad actors, and in the past, this has seen millions in locked-up tokens stolen.
  • Tax may apply. Many crypto investors are unaware that buying, selling and trading assets might be a taxable event. This applies to most crypto-earning methods too. Crypto tax is complex, so seek professional advice, read our guide to cryptocurrency tax in the US and defer to the IRS for the latest information.

Watch out for scams

The growing popularity of legitimate ways to earn cryptocurrency has seen a simultaneous rise in scams.

Be wary of new platforms that offer “too-good-to-be-true” rates, like 1,000x returns. Although a select few may be credible, many are “rug pull” scams where the developers abruptly shut down the platform to steal deposited assets.

Perform due diligence on any platform you plan on using – but especially those offering unbelievably high APYs – and stick to protocols with a large userbase and reputable track record.

Bottom line

There are now several ways for crypto holders to put idle digital assets to work earning a return. But while rates may be high, crypto-earning products aren’t as well regulated as traditional bank accounts and there’s no FDIC guarantee.

Investors who fully understand the risks and are willing to overlook short-term market volatility may find allocating a portion of assets into a crypto-earning product to be a good way to earn passive income.

The more you research, the better equipped you’ll be to decide if earning a return on crypto is for you, so keep learning with one of our guides below.

Learn how to earn crypto returns

Compare rates for different coins and project your potential earnings with our step-by-step crypto-earning guides and APY calculator.

Disclaimer: Cryptocurrencies are speculative, complex and involve significant risks – they are highly volatile and sensitive to secondary activity. Performance is unpredictable and past performance is no guarantee of future performance. Consider your own circumstances, and obtain your own advice, before relying on this information. You should also verify the nature of any product or service (including its legal status and relevant regulatory requirements) and consult the relevant Regulators' websites before making any decision. Finder, or the author, may have holdings in the cryptocurrencies discussed.

Whether products shown are available to you is subject to individual provider sole approval and discretion in accordance with the eligibility criteria and T&Cs on the provider website.

Name Product Deposit methods Fiat currencies Cryptocurrencies Offer Disclaimer Link
eToro Cryptocurrency Trading
eToro Cryptocurrency Trading
Bank transfer, Credit card, Debit card, Neteller, Skrill

18

78

Disclaimer: Cryptoasset investing is highly volatile and unregulated in the UK and some EU countries. No consumer protection. Tax on profits may apply.
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Binance Cryptocurrency Exchange (Not available to US users)
Bank transfer, Cryptocurrency

1

369

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KuCoin Cryptocurrency Exchange
KuCoin Cryptocurrency Exchange
Bank transfer, Credit card, Cryptocurrency, Debit card, PayPal, P2P

50

743

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Capital at risk

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Bybit Cryptocurrency Exchange
Bybit Cryptocurrency Exchange
Bank transfer, Credit card, Cryptocurrency, Debit card, P2P

73

279

Disclaimer: Highly volatile investment product. Your capital is at risk.
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Gate.io Cryptocurrency Exchange
Bank transfer, Credit card, Cryptocurrency, Debit card

8

1607

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Capital at risk

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Kraken Cryptocurrency Exchange
Bank transfer, Credit card, Cryptocurrency, Debit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, SWIFT

8

222

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OKX Cryptocurrency Exchange
Bank transfer, Cryptocurrency, iDEAL, PayPal, POLi, SEPA, Faster Payments (FPS)

35

338

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Capital at risk

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Uphold
Uphold
Bank transfer (ACH), Credit card, Debit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay

27

237

Capital at risk

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EXCLUSIVE
Paybis Cryptocurrency Exchange
Bank transfer, Credit card, Debit card, Neteller

42

373

Finder Exclusive: Get 25% discount on all commission for 1 transaction when using promocode Finder25. There is no time limit on the validity of the promo code.
US residents: Restricted in the following states - NY, CT, NM, WA, HI, AL, VT, FL, AK, NV.
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Finder Award
Bitstamp Cryptocurrency Exchange
Bank transfer, Credit card, Cryptocurrency, Debit card, SEPA, Faster Payments (FPS)

3

90

Capital at risk

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Coinmama Cryptocurrency Marketplace
Credit card, Fedwire, SEPA, Google Pay, SWIFT, Bank card

6

15

Capital at risk

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OFFER
Gemini Cryptocurrency Exchange
Bank transfer (ACH), Cryptocurrency, Debit card, PayPal, Apple Pay, Google Pay, SWIFT

7

152

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Finder Award
Crypto.com App
Bank transfer, Credit card, Cryptocurrency, Debit card, PayPal, Wire transfer, Apple Pay, Google Pay, SWIFT

31

384

Capital at risk

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Bybit Cryptocurrency Exchange

Bybit Cryptocurrency Exchange logo
  • Offers leverage and derivative trading
  • Supports EUR, GBP and CHF
  • Licensed to operate in all European countries
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Disclaimer: Highly volatile investment product. Your capital is at risk.

KuCoin Cryptocurrency Exchange

KuCoin Cryptocurrency Exchange logo
  • Buy, sell and trade over 700 crypto assets
  • Supports 10 Asian fiat currencies
  • Offers crypto futures trading
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Kraken Cryptocurrency Exchange

Kraken Cryptocurrency Exchange logo
  • Buy, sell and trade over 200 crypto assets
  • Licensed to operate in 17 jurisdictions in Oceania
  • Supports AUD
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Binance Cryptocurrency Exchange (Not available to US users)

Binance Cryptocurrency Exchange (Not available to US users) logo
  • Supports over 300 crypto assets
  • Binance Pay enables users spend their crypto
  • Binance P2P supports multiple African fiat currencies
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Binance Cryptocurrency Exchange (Not available to US users)

Binance Cryptocurrency Exchange (Not available to US users) logo
  • Supports over 300 crypto assets
  • Binance Pay works with Credencial Payments to support crypto payments
  • Binance P2P supports five Latin American fiat currencies
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Bybit Cryptocurrency Exchange

Bybit Cryptocurrency Exchange logo
  • Supports leverage and derivative trading
  • Supports 300 spot trading pairs
  • Low-to-non-existent trading fees
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Disclaimer: Highly volatile investment product. Your capital is at risk.
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Writer

Ben Knight was a contributing cryptocurrency writer for Finder. Having written for Alternative Assets, PianoDreamers and YeahAustralia in the past, his passion for language and creativity with words drives his work. Ben has a master’s degree in writing, editing and publishing, and a bachelor’s degree in creative writing. See full bio

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