In the fall of 2022, I settled abroad. My cash reserves at that time were invested in altcoins. Altcoins are alternative cryptocurrencies that appeared after Bitcoin, which became the first virtual coin.

It was then that the cryptocurrency market was experiencing a downturn, although many analysts predicted its growth. Based on the data, one could assume that the market would go up, but suddenly there was a disaster with the FTX exchange. It was one of the leading platforms, the second largest after Binance. I and many other investors lost funds that were on the FTX exchange. This unpleasant situation affected the entire cryptocurrency world. The prices of some altcoins fell by dozens of times — the scale was enormous.

Before the exchange crash, I held about $20,000 in alternative coins. Of that, $10,000 was on FTX — this money disappeared without a trace, and the likelihood of recovery is extremely low. The remaining $10,000 I distributed among various wallets and the Binance platform, but due to the ongoing decline in cryptocurrency prices, my funds quickly dwindled.

Since these were all my savings and I had a girlfriend waiting for me in another country, I had to sell the rapidly depreciating cryptocurrency to maintain my life. I couldn't afford to leave her without financial support.

As a result, I lost almost all my money and returned to Russia, to my hometown. I had enough funds for a modest life for about five months (approximately $400 a month). I fell into depression.

My altcoins lost value, and the money on the exchange simply evaporated. For a month, I was completely passive and even stopped going to the gym, although I had been doing it for eight years straight. Job searching did not appeal to me, as I remembered the incomes that could be earned from cryptocurrencies. For example, once in a rising market, my partner and I had about $600,000 in altcoins. And I often said that cryptocurrency can always bring profits. This experience confirmed my correctness in practice.

Why I decided to earn on retro drops

A retro drop is the process of distributing crypto coins of a project as a thank you and reward to the community. The company distributes coins to those people who used its product before a certain moment — the snapshot (the snapshot is a snapshot of the current state of the system, showing who and how used the product).

The company can take a snapshot at any moment and not inform users about it. It then announces the release of its coins to the market. The company can distribute its cryptocurrency to the community or not. Or it can release the cryptocurrency only after a few years. Or it may never release it at all — for example, if the company’s project is bad and does not succeed. This is why the distribution is called a retro drop — you can receive cryptocurrency, but only retrospectively. If you're lucky, you can sell and lock in profits. If not, you will have wasted your time and money.

Another difficulty is that the company does not disclose the criteria by which it will distribute coins. For example, one company distributed coins simply for subscribing to its social media account. People did not know this criterion in advance and used all possible features of the company's product — spending time and money on it because many features were paid.

How I started investing in retro drops

So, the entire crypto market was in stagnation, no coins were growing, and everyone was feeling down. Moreover, I didn’t have much money to buy cryptocurrency. Therefore, I decided to try to earn from retro drops.

I knew absolutely nothing about retro drops, but I spent just one day studying them. Here’s what I did:

- I watched a guide on YouTube about how to use not just one account, but several at once to participate in company projects and increase profits.

- I read channels on Telegram about cryptocurrency and retro drops, as well as the chats of these channels to stay updated on the latest news.

- How much and how I earned on retro drops

I had a desire to get back into crypto and make money, as well as unlimited access to YouTube. In addition, I used the Stepn app, which brought me $10–15 a day for one and a half to two hours of walking. These were the very virtual sneakers for $1000 — when you walk, you earn cryptocurrency (though the price of the sneakers was constantly falling).

I was only looking for large projects that were well-known and attracted the attention of investment funds. I simply typed the name of the project I liked into the YouTube search, found a guide for the retro drop, and immediately followed all the instructions from the video.

In six months, I invested in seven projects. For each of them, I created five accounts. But only two out of the seven projects brought income.

One of the projects I invested in was Arbitrum. For it, I initially created five accounts, just like for other projects. But then I used Arbitrum myself and realized that the project was great and coins would probably appear soon. So, I created another five accounts to increase potential profits. When I used Arbitrum's features, I was charged a fee. The fee size depended on the network load and was not fixed. For one operation, I paid from five cents to one dollar.

In the crypto community, as in any other community, people have to guess the reasons for various project decisions. Arbitrum was no exception, so all community members tried to conduct as many operations in its network as possible. I also actively used the project’s network.

I only had $300 in free funds that I was willing to spend. For example, $20 went to fees, and then I earned roughly the same amount in Stepn.

For each Arbitrum account, I spent an average of $20–25. Meanwhile, for minimal compliance with the project's criteria, one could invest just about $10 in each account.

A period of calm set in. The company stopped posting anything on social media, and there were no news. I began to feel apathetic, as it seemed that nothing was working out, and time and money were wasted. I can imagine the disappointment felt by those who started investing in retro drops many years ago.

In the spring of 2023, crypto channels literally exploded with news. A flurry of posts began about Arbitrum announcing the release of coins. My hands were shaking as I read these news. It was scary: would I be able to get the coins or not?

My friend was also following the news, but he was too late. More precisely, two of his accounts out of five were included in the distribution, while he created the others too late, after the snapshot.

Finally, I checked my accounts and saw that all of them had met the criteria for the coin distribution. And I had created them before the snapshot!

Arbitrum distributed a massive number of coins to 600,000 wallets, amounting to $1.6 billion. I received 18,000 coins across all my accounts. After the release, the coin was worth $7, $10, or $15, but at that price, almost no one could sell it because the system 'froze.'

I sold half of my coins at an average of $1.50 and earned $13,500. The other half of the coins remained with me. Now these altcoins are worth about $1.15–$1.20, but I believe in them and think that they will rise in price.

To those who received the retro drop, Arbitrum later distributed a meme coin called Arbdoge. I earned $500 from the sale of Arbdoge per account. I had 10 accounts, so I received a total of $5,000.

After my experience with Arbitrum, I decided to try my hand at the Sui project. From November to May 2023, I participated in all of the project's activities: played games, tested the wallet, and so on. But in the end, it turned out that all I needed to do to receive coins was to subscribe to the company's account on Discord. And instead of a distribution, the company announced a sale of coins. They held two types of sales: a public sale and a community sale for subscribers who could buy several coins for only $45.

The company did not allow all subscribers from Russia and Belarus to participate in the sale, which received negative feedback. I managed to bypass the restrictions and bought coins for $45, which then turned into $1,800–$2,000 for one account. From my four accounts, I earned about $7,800.

In six months, I tried seven projects, hoping for retro drops, but coins were only released for Arbitrum and Sui, and regarding the other projects, it is unknown whether they will be released at all. In total, I earned $26,300 plus another 9,000 unsold Arbitrum coins (each now worth about $1.15), which is equivalent to $36,650.

Now I understand that I made a mistake trying to work with all projects at once, instead of focusing on one in which I believed would soon launch coins.

Now I have an intuitive sense of which next retro drop might happen and I focus only on that.

Write in the comments - 'tell me about the next retro drop' and I will write to you about it in a direct message.

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