The traditional ways of playing in the crypto world (such as spot trading, contract leverage, and staking mining) have become a red ocean, the information gap is gradually disappearing, and it has become increasingly difficult for retail investors to profit.
To break through the saturation, one must turn to underdeveloped niche areas and strategies driven by reverse thinking. Here are 10 unconventional but highly potential ideas suitable for niche players willing to delve deeper.
1. Capturing the leftover profits from 'MEV' (Miner Extractable Value) MEV is the profit miners extract through methods such as adjusting transaction order and inserting transactions, but ordinary users can monitor MEV opportunities through tools (like Flashbots): Arbitrage bot: Monitor large transactions in the Mempool (like large buy orders on DEX), buy in ahead with higher gas fees before the target transaction, and then sell at a high price. Liquidation data services: Develop on-chain liquidation warning tools, charge users of lending platforms for real-time liquidation line alerts, and earn subscription fees. Case: A team monitored Compound liquidation events, and during the price fluctuations of ETH in 2023, they bought up collateral assets before liquidation, achieving a monthly profit of over 30%.
2. Arbitrage through 'fragmentation restructuring' of NFTs NFTs have poor liquidity, but new opportunities can be created by splitting ownership: Fragmented acquisition: Buy fragmented tokens of blue-chip NFT projects (like BAYC) at a low price (like BAYC fragments obtained by APE Coin stakers), waiting to profit during airdrops or buybacks. Niche NFT restructuring: Buy large quantities of cheap NFTs with the same theme (like a series from a niche artist), raise their value through secondary creation, bundled sales, or telling new stories (like 'nostalgic pixel fund'). Case: In 2022, a team packaged 100 'zombie' NFTs into 'metaverse archaeology blind boxes' and achieved a 10x return through community hype.
3. 'Gray industry gold mining' in on-chain data Blockchain data is public and transparent, but 90% of people do not analyze it: Token distribution graph analysis: Track early holders of new project tokens, identify whale wallets (such as tokens concentrated in a small number of addresses), and predict pump timings in advance. Airdrop hunter tools: Develop scripts to automatically monitor potential airdrop projects (like zkSync ecosystem interaction records), create addresses in bulk to brush interactions, and sell 'airdrop expectation' data packages. Case: A data analysis platform successfully warned users of a project’s sell-off by tracking the on-chain behavior of the top 50 addresses of a DeFi project, helping subscribers avoid an 80% drop.
4. Parasitic 'DeFi Lego' arbitrage Profiting from rule loopholes between protocols: Interest rate cliff arbitrage: Certain lending platforms (like Aave) see deposit rates soar at specific utilization rates, allowing large deposits to trigger rate spikes, attracting follow-up funds before withdrawing. Cross-protocol risk-free arbitrage: For example, deposit ETH in Compound to borrow USDC, deposit USDC in Curve pools to earn interest, while shorting ETH to hedge against price fluctuations, earning interest rate differentials. Case: In 2023, an arbitrage team leveraged the interest rate difference between MakerDAO’s DSR (deposit rate) and AAVE’s borrowing rate to achieve an annualized 45% return.
5. 'Infrastructure service providers' in the crypto world The crypto space lacks gamblers but needs 'shovel sellers' - Gas fee optimization tools: Develop browser plugins that automatically select the best gas fee times (for example, after the Ethereum Shanghai upgrade, monitor Blob transaction fee fluctuations). On-chain reputation tokenization: Issue 'credit tokens' for KOLs or project parties (like a certain influencer's 'successful call rate' token), where users pay for subscriptions or hedge risks. Case: A team launched the 'anti-Pixiu detection tool', helping users identify Pixiu contract codes, with over 20,000 paid users.
6. Counter-cyclical layout of 'junk assets' suitable for the bear market bottom: Dead ashes revival strategy: Bulk acquisition of tokens from projects that have gone to zero but whose communities have not dispersed (like once 'top-tier projects'), betting on team restarts or new narratives (like AI + Web3). Exchange delisting alerts: Monitor announcements of token delistings from exchanges, acquire at low prices in advance, and sell at high prices in OTC trading groups to 'emotional buyers'. Case: After the FTX collapse in 2022, an investor bought Serum (SRM) at $0.001 per token, which rose to $0.3 in 2023 due to project restructuring.
7. Crypto-native 'social experiments' speculation The human nature experiments in the crypto space never end: Participating in governance wars: Accumulate governance tokens before DAO governance votes, selling voting rights to opposing parties (like in the Curve War for veCRV). Sociology of Meme coins: Preemptively ambush 'personal tokens' of Twitter crypto KOLs, creating memes within their fan groups, raising the price before selling. Case: A community initiated a 'reverse harvesting of the dog coin' campaign on Telegram, attracting quantitative robots to follow suit, then profiting by selling back.
8. Regulatory arbitrage: Edge opportunities in compliance deserts License leasing business: Register compliant entities in regions with relaxed regulations (like UAE, Seychelles), renting licenses to project parties, charging annual fees + token shares. OTC fiat channels: Build P2P fiat exchange networks in countries where cryptocurrencies are banned (like Nigeria, Turkey), profiting from exchange rate differences + transaction fees.
9. Crypto 'cold start' operations to help Web2 companies enter Web3: Token economy design: Create membership point tokenization schemes for traditional companies, charging consulting fees + token shares. NFT issuance outsourcing: Issue NFTs for celebrities and brands, promising minimum sales and sharing the premium portion.
10. Paradoxical 'shorting sentiment' harvesting When the market is euphoric, take the opposite action: Panic index derivatives: Buy 'market fear index' futures (like BTC Dvol) on platforms like Deribit to arbitrage during extreme market conditions. - Shorting 'certain narratives': For example, shorting ETH before the Ethereum Cancun upgrade, betting that 'good news is already priced in'.
Risk warning: All of the above strategies require deep learning + small fund trial and error, and one must be cautious of: 1. Contract vulnerability risks (like MEV bots being countered) 2. Regulatory gray areas (like fragmented NFTs potentially involving securities laws) 3. Liquidity traps (like obscure tokens being unsellable).
Core principles:
Information gap > Technical analysis, deeply cultivate niche areas to establish cognitive barriers. Anti-human actions, find inverse opportunities from the behavior of the majority. Maintain the ability to exit; obscure tracks can instantaneously go to zero. The ultimate wealth secret in the crypto world often lies in places most people 'cannot see, look down on, or do not understand.'