As long as you dare to think, there are countless ways to make money in Web3. Stop just focusing on trading coins; Web3 has long formed a highly specialized and diverse digital landscape with endless opportunities, from investment speculation to gray market pathways. Below we will outline all legitimate, gray, black, and even 'you wouldn't have thought of this' ways to make money. As long as your mindset doesn’t deteriorate, solutions will always outnumber difficulties!

(PS: Regular people's monetization paths start from 3️⃣)

1️⃣ Investment/Speculation (The Kingly Way of 'Making Money Work for You')

1. Spot Investment: The classic 'buy coins and hold for appreciation.' Bitcoin, Ethereum, Solana, L2, mainstream altcoins all have cycles; buying low and selling high profits from the trend.

2. Swing Trading: Short-term operations, intraday trading, chasing trends, or riding price surges. Experts use candlestick charts to trade rhythm, while novices easily become victims.

3. Contract Leverage: Using small amounts of money to leverage larger amounts. Supports both long and short positions (going long or short), making profits even in bear markets as long as the direction is correct. The risks are extremely high, and it's easy to get liquidated. True experts rely on 'hedging, arbitrage, and capturing leverage explosion points' to earn.

4. Quantitative Arbitrage: Using algorithms to exploit arbitrage opportunities, price discrepancies between different exchanges or coin pairs. Major quantitative players profit from market inefficiencies.

5. Early Speculation/Private Placement/Pre-Sale: Participating in new coin pre-sales, IDOs, Launchpads, IEOs. Projects can skyrocket multiple times, but the probability of dropping to zero is equally high. Take note of the circulation unlocking period for the coins you subscribe to, or else it becomes 'air-locking.'

6. Airdrop Hunters: Collecting various project airdrops (testnets, mainnets, on-chain interactions, activity tasks, NFTs, inscriptions, etc.), with minimal initial investment, having chances for overnight wealth (like ARB, OP, ZK series, etc.). Professional airdrop hunters often have multiple accounts; what you grab is profit. For example, Binance Alpha airdrops are a typical route of 'engaging interactions, completing holding tasks, and grabbing benefits from major exchanges.' As long as you meet platform requirements, you can share new coin rewards issued by the platform without needing to invest capital. Major exchange airdrops are safer, accessible to all, representing a low-risk, high-cost-performance way to monetize in Web3.

7. NFT Investment/Speculation: Snatching up popular NFT projects at launch or minting at low prices, flipping for profit, or holding top-tier NFTs for rental dividends. If played well, you can enjoy a wave of blue-chip dividends; if played poorly, you end up with a mess.

8. GameFi/P2E (Play to Earn): Engaging in blockchain games or guilds to earn game tokens and NFTs; you can earn money while working. Some blockchain games can earn thousands a month, while others can drop to zero in half a month.

9. DeFi Liquidity Mining: Putting your coins into DEX, lending pools, or stablecoin pools to earn transaction fees, governance tokens, or interest. New projects offer high rewards, but you need to beware of impermanent loss and exit scams.

10. Domain/ENS/SNS Speculation: Snatching up short, attractive, rare on-chain domains (like .eth/.bnb/.sol) to wait for big players/institutions/brands to buy at high prices.

11. Dog Coin Realization Method: This involves buying high-risk small coins (commonly referred to as 'Dog Coins') that are newly listed on various DEX/new platforms, betting on a violent surge for short-term speculation, and quick entry and exit. Some may 'drop to zero immediately after opening,' while others can go 'hundredfold overnight.' This approach is extremely dangerous; experts profit by seizing fast information, early ambushes, and sector rhythms, while novices are likely to be cut.

2️⃣ Construction/Service (The Path of 'Earning through Ability')

1. Developers/Engineers: Writing code, building protocols, developing applications, creating NFTs/games/DAOs, issuing tokens/NFTs for projects, or receiving salaries from the team. Advanced roles can involve multi-chain deployment, SDK, oracles, cross-chain infrastructure, with huge market demand.

2. Security Auditing/White Hat Hackers: Checking for vulnerabilities in projects, conducting contract audits, providing security consulting, earning auditing fees or bug bounty rewards. Experts can earn millions annually, especially in high-risk DeFi projects.

3. Product Managers/Operations/Designers: Participating in early product design, interaction, visuals, content packaging for projects, receiving monthly salaries or token shares. Positions that involve marketing and social growth are also very sought after.

4. Technical Service Providers/Outsourcing: Developing DApps, tools, bots, APIs, nodes, liquidity aggregation, etc., for other projects, charging per order or for long-term collaboration.

5. On-Chain Data Analysis/Dashboard Tool Authors: Building on-chain data analysis platforms, on-chain dashboards, and on-chain profiling services, charging membership fees, data service fees, and consultation fees.

6. Smart Contract Template/Tool Library Authors: Developing and licensing/selling code libraries, automation tools, auditing scripts, and open-source projects, profiting by 'selling shovels.'

7. Web3 Training/Education/Incubators: Offering public blockchain courses, technical training, offline boot camps, charging companies or individuals.

8. Consultants/Consultant DAOs: Providing strategic, technical, operational, compliance consulting services for projects, earning consulting fees, project shares, or tokens.

9. Testers/Bounty Tasks: Participating in project testing, reporting bugs, writing experience reports, and completing project bounty tasks (Bounties), earning from dozens to thousands of dollars per task.

3️⃣ Content/Traffic (The 'Traffic Monetization' Method)

1. KOL/Self-Media: Engaging on platforms like Twitter, Weibo, Bilibili, public accounts, YouTube, etc., making money through promotions, ads, soft articles, AMAs, advertising, project promotions, and transaction commissions (referral links). Top influencers earn millions annually, while ordinary players harvest new investors through fan groups and knowledge circles.

2. Deep Researchers/Analysts: Producing reports, investment research notes, on-chain investigations, monthly strategies, with paid content, subscription groups, newsletters, selling articles on Mirror, and NFT issuance.

3. Translation/Information Transport/Data Integration: Translating overseas first-hand information, reporting news, organizing information flow, and running news bots, earning through traffic ads, community fees, and tips.

4. Graphic Designers/Meme Creators: Efficiently producing candlestick charts, visual posters, crypto-themed jokes, and memes, contracting creative content for projects, communities, KOLs, and exchanges.

5. Online Influence Bots/Retweet Groups: Boosting project visibility, ranking, attacking competitors, trending, and controlling reviews, settling tasks on a per-job basis or long-term 'monthly packages,' with a complete industrial chain, even capable of forming targeted 'black PR' teams.


6. Content Outsourcing/Writers/Publishing Companies: Writing press releases, promotional articles, white papers, analytical articles for projects, charging per piece or in package deals, with top writers earning thousands of dollars for a single article.

7. Meme Creators/Trendsetters: Writing memes, creating memes, making short videos, catchy jokes, bringing traffic through trending topics, making themselves or projects/KOL popular.

4️⃣ Community/Operation (The 'Gathering People to Accumulate Wealth' Domain)

1. Community Operations/Admins: Managing project communities (Telegram, Discord, WeChat groups, Forums), answering inquiries, guiding trends, receiving salaries or project tokens, with some having incentive mechanisms.

2. DAO Operators/Participants: Participating in DAO governance, submitting proposals, organizing online and offline events, executing bounty tasks to earn governance tokens, task rewards, or DAO salaries.

3. Project Ambassadors/Volunteers: Becoming an official ambassador to help with promotion, education, onboarding new users, translation, event execution, etc., receiving rewards based on tasks. Some projects even have an 'Ambassador DAO.'

4. Community Group Leaders/Admins: Creating groups, gathering followers, selling ad spaces, membership fees, connecting with KOLs, hosting AMAs, and helping project teams attract users.

5. Offline Event/Conference Organizers: Hosting blockchain summits, Meetups, salons, gatherings, selling tickets, attracting sponsorships, and collecting fees for project promotions.

5️⃣ On-Chain Infrastructure and Mining ('Using Computing Power and Capital to Grab Benefits')

1. PoW Miners/Mine Owners: Buying mining rigs to mine BTC, LTC, Kaspa, and other PoW coins, earning block rewards and transaction fees. Mine owners expand profits through bulk operations and low electricity prices.

2. PoS Node/Staking Service Providers: Staking ETH, SOL, BNB, etc., on PoS chains, earning block rewards and staking commissions, while service providers can attract retail funds for profit-sharing.

3. Liquidity Staking Protocols (like Lido, Rocket Pool): Building and operating liquidity staking platforms, profiting through staking rewards and transaction fees.

4. Market Makers/Liquidity Providers (LPs): Providing liquidity on centralized or decentralized exchanges, earning spreads, transaction fees, and LP incentives (liquidity mining).


6️⃣ Payment, Exchange, and Matching ('Brick Moving OTC Merchants' Gray Zone)

1. OTC Merchants: Buying and selling stablecoins like USDT/BUSD/DAI off-exchange, earning the price difference between RMB and stablecoins, connecting large cash-out clients with crypto buyers, with many gray area experts earning over ten thousand daily.

2. Payment/Receiving Gateways: Helping merchants or individuals use USDT and others for transactions, earning transaction fees or exchange rate differences.

3. Cross-Border Brick Movers: Utilizing regulatory differences and fiat currency premiums in different countries to arbitrage funds and profit from the exchange rate differences.

4. Bank Card, Wallet, Payment Tool Lessors: Providing bank accounts, cards, and wallet addresses for receiving payments in exchange for commissions, but with money laundering risks involved.

7️⃣ Black and Gray Markets and 'Bug-Based Arbitrage' ('High Risk High Reward')

1. White Hat Hackers/Bug Bounty Hunters: Discovering vulnerabilities in protocols or exchanges and reporting them to the official parties for a reward; the gameplay is between compliance and the gray area.

2. MEV Arbitrage Bots/Sandwich Attacks: Using bots to exploit transaction ordering vulnerabilities on-chain to front-run regular users, profiting from transaction price differences (like Ethereum MEV).

3. Hackers/Attackers: Attacking projects, stealing assets, phishing, extorting; extremely high risks with illegal gains.

4. Ponzi Schemes/Scams/Air Coin Fraud/Rug Pull Teams: Packaging fake projects to recruit participants, fleece investors, create backdoor contracts, and run away with funds, categorized as black market activities.

5. Money Laundering, Black Money Exchange, Cross-Border Black Money Transport: Utilizing the anonymity of crypto assets for money laundering and transferring illicit funds, earning high commissions, which is highly illegal.

8️⃣ Subdivision and Innovative Paths ('New Methods')

1. Inscription Mining/Arbitrage: 'Minting' rare inscriptions on main chains like Bitcoin, trading new accounts, and snatching quality IDs to eat dividends early.

2. AI-Driven On-Chain Economy: AI for automated trading, NFT generation, smart recommendations, integrating AIGC with Web3, where AI studios sell custom algorithms, models, and content, creating new paths for technological monetization.

3. On-Chain Credit Scores/Identity Protocol Profit: Participating in DID, SBT, on-chain reputation systems, etc., exchanging identities for rewards and accessing new project whitelists.

4. Entertainment and Secondary Creation: Producing on-chain music, crypto novels, animations, digital collectibles for sale, engaging in a reward economy.

9️⃣ Summary

Web3 offers diverse profitable paths, various methods, and highly stratified entry barriers. If you have money, you can invest in venture capital or become a miner; if you have skills, you can write code or focus on security; if you have connections and content capabilities, you can become a KOL or community leader; if you have nothing, you can still earn from airdrops or completing tasks. True experts often pursue multiple paths simultaneously, layering income streams. The lowest entry barrier is grabbing benefits, while the highest ceiling is early investment and development in large projects.

Only advice: Be cautious of risks, don’t be greedy or gamble. High returns in Web3 always come with high risks, especially in gray and black markets which should never be touched. Find a method that suits you, focus on honing it, and wealth will accumulate.

—— @加密金猴-蓝鸟会 Respectfully presented by Crypto Golden Monkey

Ps: Everyone is welcome to contribute more methods!