altcoin catalyst Archives - Coin Mining Rigs - How to Mine Cryptocurrencies

A crypto bull market happens roughly every four years. With that knowledge, you can position yourself to profit from this crypto bull market. Having been in the space since early 2013, I have learned how to make money in this world of crypto. In this article I will be share my ten favorite ways to make money in crypto.

But first, a disclaimer:
Nothing I post in video or audio or written form should be construed as investment advice. I am not a licensed financial advisor and all of my content is for entertainment purposes only. You really should do your own research and make your own investment decisions. Also, some links posted are referral links, meaning I will receive a commission should you decide to click those links and purchase products and services.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, let’s dive in. If you are wondering about my opening statement that crypto bull markets happen EVERY FOUR YEARS, look at the following chart.

Since the inception of Bitcoin, the first cryptocurrency, the entire market has followed the Bitcoin ‘halving cycle’ in bull and bear (price go up / price go down) cycles. Basically, the number of Bitcoins being mined every 10 minutes, drops by half every 4 years. This creates a ‘supply shock’ which pushes the price up. Investors notice the price breaking the previous high and all want a piece of the action, buying and pushing the price all the way up to a parabolic top, followed by a crash and a bear cycle. This happened in 2013 and 2017 and is now happening in 2021 at the time of this article being written. It will likely happen again in 2025, though we can’t predict the future with any exact accuracy.

The other thing about these bull cycles, is each one includes alt coins or ‘alternative coins’ which are newer, faster, better versions of Bitcoin that software developers have created to grow the ecosystem and enable new functionality in the crypto space. In 2013, we had fairly basic ‘alt coins’ like Litecoin, Dogecoin (literally just a cryptocurrency built around a meme), and NXT (which was one of the first proof-of-stake cryptocurrencies). In 2017, we had hundreds of ICO’s (initial coin offering), a play on the term IPO (initial public offering). Most of these were just a money grab and many lost 99% or more of their over-hyped value in time. A few of the really good projects like ETH survived and spawned whole ecosystems like the ERC-20 tokens. This leads us to 2021 and the theme of this crypto bull market which is all about the DeFi (decentralized finance) ecosystem. DeFi, as it is called, basically eliminates the needs of institutions like banks, stock exchanges, ratings agencies, and other archaic relics of the traditional financial system that has governed the world for over 300 years. I don’t want to go too far down the rabbit hole here, but let’s just say the crypto space has truly matured into a global financial phenomenon that only comes around every few hundred years (in my humble opinion).

All of that history is interesting, you might say. But, how do I profit from the current crypto bull market cycle? There are dozens of ways to make money in the space, but here are the ten that have been consistently profitable for me along with some of the caveats to avoid.

1. Investing in Cryptocurrency

After much trial and error, my approach to investing in cryptocurrency looks like this. From the bear market bottom, I start dollar cost averaging my buys of Bitcoin to HODL along with my favorite alt coins that look like they could have serious potential once a bull market really takes off. As the bull market enters the parabolic advance phase that resembles a hockey stick pattern, I take profits.

The elements I look for when choosing which altcoins to invest in are:

A stellar software development team. My IT background helps me here. Star power helps, a bit like the movies. If someone is known for groundbreaking work in the crypto space, there’s a better chance the project will succeed.
A solid use case and good ‘tokenomics’. There should be an incentive to buy, hold and utilize the tokens in the blockchain ecosystem.
Frictionless purchasing and use. It should be easy for newcomers to simply understand the value proposition and buy the altcoin on most major exchanges.

Here are the crypto exchanges I have found to be the most reliable:

VOYAGER is a US-based exchange that not only sells dozens of altcoins, but pays interest on your portfolio of altcoins that you hold longer term.

FTX Global Crypto Exchange (Use FTX US if a US resident) is not only an excellent exchange, but it is a leading crypto derivatives exchange and even has tokenized public stocks for companies like Amazon and Tesla which trade 24/7, outside US stock market hours.

2. Trading Cryptocurrencies

Trading cryptocurrencies in a bull market can make someone who has no prior experience in trading feel like a genius. Just buy and the price goes up. Sell when you think the price might go down. Simple, right? Not so fast. There are aspects of trading cryptocurrencies you can’t just ignore. Human emotions will wreak havoc on your best laid trade entry and exit plans, leaving you frustrated and depressed when a market maker dumps the price right after you buy. What you need, is a trading edge combined with a trading plan.

I recommend both of these exchanges for trading :

VOYAGER is a US-based exchange that not only sells dozens of altcoins, but pays interest on your portfolio of altcoins that you hold longer term.

2. FTX Global Crypto Exchange (Use FTX US if a US resident) is not only an excellent exchange, but it is a leading crypto derivatives exchange and even has tokenized public stocks for companies like Amazon and Tesla which trade 24/7, outside US stock market hours.

Now that you have a trading account set up, what do I mean by a Trading Edge?

Trading Edges – A trading edge, is something that quite literally gives you an edge in the market. Something that will allow you to consistently book profits and avoid devastating losses. Without giving you full course on technical analysis and candlestick chart patterns, some of my favorite trading edges in cryptocurrencies include:
- Funding Rate – the funding rate of Bitcoin perpetual futures (whether longs pay shorts or shorts pay longs) is the only one that is a consistently good indicator of where the price will move short term. Alt coin funding is all over the map, and not as good an indicator. Here’s an example using the funding rate from say, the Deribit or BitMex Bitcoin derivatives exchanges. Let’s say the price of Bitcoin has been ‘crashing’ and the funding rate has been positive the whole way down to ‘goblin town’. What you are looking for, is a quick reversal of this funding rate in real-time (there are alert services for this) and THAT is when you swoop in to ‘buy the dip’ as the price bounces.
- Broken Base Trade – This is a trading strategy that has an extremely high probability of closing in profit. In my experience, 95% of my trades close in profit. Basically, when a crypto panic sell happens, look for the price to break previous support (broken base) and start to layer in a long position several percentages below that broken base. I usually like to wait for volume to show up in the chart indicating buyers are stepping in. Once the price bounces, it almost always retraces the move back to the broken base at minimum. Just below the broken base is where I take profit on the trade.
- Altcoin Catalyst – This is useful for swing and position trades. A catalyst is something that will get people excited about the altcoin you are looking to buy low and sell high. Often, this is something like an airdrop or a fork of the coin where retail investors think they will get something in exchange for buying and holding through a specific day and time. If you buy early enough ahead of this catalyst and then sell right before the event occurs, you will take advantage of the price appreciation leading up the catalyst date and profit.
- Social Signals – There are indicators that show when an altcoin like Doge or Ripple (two altcoins that often pump and dump) begin to trend on social platforms. You can use this signal to buy ahead of the price movement and set a trailing stop loss to profit on the move up. I don’t take this trade often, but it can be very profitable if you play it well.
- Tracked Wallets – Since altcoins are public blockchains, many of the ‘whale’ wallets are tracked. You can get signals for when whales move or buy large amounts of an altcoin, and combined with technical analysis, speculate they intend to pump (or dump) the price of an altcoin. Using this information, you can place your trade entry and exit points and profit.
- Other Trading Edges – There are dozens of other trading edges I find less useful, but please share yours in the comments below this article and I’ll add it to this list.

3. Mining Cryptocurrencies

Using custom-built cryptocurrency mining computer hardware, you can mine many of the popular cryptocurrencies that are based on the ‘proof-of-work’ algorithms. Coins like Eth, Monero, and Dogecoin can all be mined on a GPU mining rig. I’ve created a complete guide to building your own cryptocurrency mining rig if you’d like to explore this method of profiting from a cryptocurrency bull market.

4. Lending and Staking Cryptocurrencies

Many centralized exchange platforms, like FTX Global Crypto Exchange (Use FTX US if a US resident), allow you to lend out the stablecoins (USDC or USDT) or altcoins you hold on their platform for anywhere from a few percentage points to as high as 1,000% APY during peak demand times. You can also stake your proof-of-stake altcoins like the $FTT token or $BNB token. This locks up your coins for a period of time in exchange for rewards like dividend payments or reduced trading fees on a platform.

5. Selling GPU’s and other related hardware on eBay or Amazon

During the 2017 crypto bull market, I partnered with a few friends to build and sell the custom mining computer ‘crates’ that were selling faster than we could produce them. It was a fun experience, and the first time I took part in manufacturing and selling a physical product. Another way to make money during the crypto bull market is to buy GPU’s at or below retail before the big rush, then sell them when the market prices them at 2-3x what you paid for them. This obviously has some risks and is capital intensive, but I’ve seen some big players in the space do this quite profitably.

6. Build a Website, YouTube Channel or TikTok Following

Many early adopters of Bitcoin (known as Bitcoin OG’s) became influencers in the crypto space and garnered a huge following on their websites, Youtube channels or, more recently, the TikTok social media platform. They use affiliate links and sell merchandise to their followers for fun and profit. The website you’re on right now was built in early 2013, back when I was still mining Bitcoin on an old computer with a graphics card in it, before purpose-built computer chips took over Bitcoin mining.

7. Write Code for a DeFi Project

If you are a gifted computer science major and have the coding chops to develop the next breakthrough in decentralized finance, there are dozens of companies looking to hire you. The pay is quite competitive. You can find a list of currently open positions on Indeed.

8. Provide Technical Support to Users of Crypto Platforms

Companies like Voyager Invest andFTX Global Crypto Exchange (Use FTX US if a US resident) are always hiring support personnel to handle the constant stream of support tickets from their clients. If you have a lot of patience and enjoy customer service, this might be a fun career for you.

9. HODL BTC and Collect Interest

There are several platforms that pay anywhere from 6 to as high as 10% APR interest on your BTC that you plan to continue dollar cost averaging over the long term. Two that I have found to be reputable are Voyager Invest and BlockFi. Voyager has an added incentive to hold their $VGX token in order to receive a 1% boost in your interest rate.

10. Crypto Arbitrage

This is something that is less common than it used to be, but every crypto bull market has this opportunity at times. Here’s how it works. An altcoin on exchange A has an altcoin being traded for a large percentage cheaper than exchange B. You can purchase the currency on exchange A, send it quickly to exchange B and sell for a profit. When this occurs, speed is of the essence as other market participants will notice and race against you, the clock and the trading bots to cash in on this unique opportunity.