What Should You Focus on as a Newcomer in the Crypto World?

Let's break down the basics of the crypto space—something many traders might not fully understand. I categorize the people in the crypto space into three groups:

90% are "trading-focused" (people who buy and sell crypto coins).
9% are "DeFi dividend-focused" (people who participate in decentralized finance and mining).
1% are "airdrop hunters" (people who earn rewards by helping early-stage projects, also known as "airdrop farming").
In my view, the crypto world operates where institutional investors and airdrop hunters profit from trading-focused participants.

If you enter the trading space with just $700 (around 5,000 RMB), you could lose it all within 10 minutes using contract trading. And for DeFi dividends, you probably don’t have enough money to start. So, what’s the best path for you?

Don’t hesitate—join the airdrop hunters!

Airdrop hunting is a completely different strategy than crypto trading, even though both exist within the crypto ecosystem. If you're looking for a way to turn $700 into $140,000 through trading, this isn’t the answer. But if you want a more reliable way to make money, keep reading.

What Is Web3 Airdrop Hunting?
In the crypto world, centralized exchanges (CEX) like Binance, Coinbase, and Huobi represent the secondary market. On the other hand, all tokens that are not yet listed on these exchanges are traded on decentralized exchanges (DEX), which are considered the primary market.

Airdrop hunting involves earning rewards from legitimate, early-stage projects that haven’t yet launched their tokens on centralized exchanges. We operate in what I call the “0th market”—helping projects before they even hit the primary market.

How Legitimate Projects Work
In the crypto world, anyone can create a token in minutes. But for a legitimate project, they need to raise funds to build their product. To do this, they must convince investors and venture capital (VC) firms that the project is worth investing in.

However, they can’t just make promises—they need to show data: traffic, popularity, and blockchain activity. This is where airdrop hunters come in. We help projects create this data by completing specific tasks and interacting with their ecosystem.

Once the project collects enough data, it can secure funding from investors.

How Do You Get Paid?
When the project is ready to launch, it will issue tokens (such as ETH, BNB, ARB, etc.) and take a snapshot of all the on-chain activity. The project then distributes these tokens as rewards to the wallets that participated in helping the project grow. This is your “airdrop,” which functions like a paycheck.

Think of it as a three-way win:

The project gets its data and funding.
Investors (VCs) get their share of tokens.
You (the airdrop hunter) get paid in tokens.
The ones who lose in this system are the traders in the secondary market who buy the tokens once they’re listed on centralized exchanges.

Airdrop Hunters Don’t Trade
One important point: Airdrop hunters don’t trade. They might occasionally buy tokens directly (called “spot trading”), but they avoid risky activities like contract trading.

If you focus on airdrop hunting, you’re already ahead of 90% of the people in the crypto space. Why? Because you’re avoiding risky trading strategies that most people fall into.

Advantages of Airdrop Hunting:
Low investment: You don’t need a lot of money. Some testnet projects provide free tokens for you to use, while mainnet projects only require small gas fees (e.g., $0.02 on the BNB chain or $0.30 on ZKSync).

High returns: While one wallet may only earn you a few thousand dollars, remember that each wallet is like an individual employee in Web3. You can manage 100 wallets if you want to maximize your returns.

Flexible time: You can work whenever you want. As long as the project hasn’t taken its snapshot, you decide when to complete tasks.

Recent success stories:

ARKM: $3,000–$12,000 per wallet.
ARB: $1,500–$3,000 per wallet (most people had 10 wallets).
OP: $1,500–$3,000 per wallet.
SUI: $1,500 per wallet.
Disadvantages of Airdrop Hunting:
Time-consuming: Sorting through projects, completing tasks, and managing multiple wallets can take an entire day.

Long project duration: Some projects take 2–3 years to launch. During that time, you won’t receive any immediate rewards.

Risk of failure: Some projects may take longer than expected or get outperformed by competitors, meaning your time and gas fees could be wasted.

Sybil attacks: Managing multiple wallets can be risky. Project teams might detect and blacklist addresses they suspect of manipulating the system, which means you might not receive your airdrop rewards.

Conclusion
Airdrop hunting is a reliable and low-risk way to make money in the crypto space. Avoid trading and contracts—focus on earning tokens by helping projects grow. It’s a simple strategy: trade your time and effort for tokens. This is the true path to success in the crypto world.