If someone told you it's possible to earn free crypto, you might think it's too good to be true.
However, with crypto faucets, you can do exactly that. These websites pay you with small amounts of crypto for completing short online tasks, like answering surveys, watching ads, and playing games.
But how do crypto faucets work, and are they even worth the time? This guide is covering what cryptocurrency faucets are, the earning potential, and some better alternatives.
What Is A Crypto Faucet?
A cryptocurrency faucet is a website or app that pays you with free cryptocurrency for completing short online tasks. Typically, crypto faucets pay you with Bitcoin or Ethereum, although there are many multi-coin crypto faucets that let you choose the coin you get paid with.
Crypto faucets usually pay a very small amount of crypto for every task you complete. Examples of tasks crypto faucets often let you complete include:
- Sharing posts on social media
- Watching videos and ads
- Clicking on CAPTCHA images to train algorithms
- Completing online quizzes and surveys
- Shopping for products online
- Downloading and playing different mobile and PC games
Most crypto faucets pay you with cryptocurrencies to your faucet account's wallet. Others have their own point-based system in which you eventually redeem points for prizes like free crypto or, occasionally, cash.
Regardless of the payment method, don’t expect to get rich from crypto faucets. You generally earn a few cents to a dollar worth of crypto for completing a task. However, if you earn a lesser-known currency before it becomes popular, you could see it grow into a more sizeable holding.
How Do Crypto Faucets Work?
Crypto faucets pay you for completing short online tasks. And most crypto faucets work in a few simple steps:
- Complete Your Profile: Crypto faucets usually require creating an account with your email address and filling out some basic information about yourself, like what country you're from and your age.
- Complete Short Online Tasks: Different crypto faucets have various ways to earn. The most popular options usually involve answering paid surveys or watching videos and ads. However, some faucets are as simple as answering a CAPTCHA every hour and then winning a random amount of a certain crypto.
- Get Paid: You get paid a very small amount of crypto or points for completing tasks. If you're using a Bitcoin faucet, this means getting paid a very small amount of Satoshis, which is the smallest denomination of Bitcoin.
- Cash Out: Crypto faucets eventually let you cash out your earnings to your own crypto wallet. Cash out requirements vary by faucet, but anywhere from $5 to $20 is common.
It's worth noting that the payments you're getting from crypto faucet tasks are truly small. For example, a Satoshi is a 100 millionth of a Bitcoin. So even if you get a handful of Satoshis for answering an online survey or watching a video, it's almost worthless.
The advantage of crypto faucets is that it makes cryptocurrencies very accessible. After all, anyone with an Internet connection and some time on their hands can now earn small amounts of Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other popular coins. Plus, if you earn crypto that ends up appreciating significantly, the value of your faucet rewards goes up.
However, you can make much more money per hour with online freelancing, a part-time job, or other gig jobs. In turn, you can spend the cash you earn there on crypto by using popular exchanges like Coinbase. In this sense, there are more effective ways to add crypto to your portfolio than using faucets.
Popular Crypto Faucets You Can Use
There are dozens of crytocurrency faucets you can use to get free crypto. Bitcoin faucets are the most popular type, but Ethereum, Monero, and Cardano faucets are also common. And some crypto faucets support multiple cryptos, so you can redeem your earnings for a variety of coins.
Some of the most popular crypto faucets include:
- Allcoins.pw: A popular crypto faucet and mining platform that lets you earn Ether.
- Monero Faucet: Monero Faucet is an advertising-based site that pays out Monero currency every hour. The same owner offers affiliated sites for other currencies as well.
- Fire Faucet: Fire Faucet offers rewards for doing online tasks like completing surveys, watching videos, and completing a purchase through an affiliated seller. It pays rewards in Bitcoin, Binance Coin, Tether, Ethereum, Dogecoin, Litecoin, Dash, Tron, Nano, Monero, ZCash, and DigiByte.
- Ethereum-Faucet.org: Another multi-coin faucet that supports Ethereum, Dash, Litecoin, and several other cryptos.
- Cointiply: This rewards website lets you earn free Bitcoin with its crypto faucet. You can also answer surveys, watch ads, and invite your friends to earn additional rewards.
These are just a handful of popular crypto faucets, and you can find over a dozen others that largely serve the same purpose.
Again, you won't earn a lot of free crypto with these platforms. Plus, endlessly solving CAPTCHAS, watching ads, clicking on links, and answering surveys can be draining.
Stay Alert for Crypto Faucet Scams
If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is. The cliche is very true when it comes to cryptocurrency and cryptocurrency faucets.
Many faucets are legitimate, although they barely pay anything. But if a crypto faucet seems like a get-rich-quick scheme or is asking for a lot of personal information like your private keys, stay away.
And remember: thee golden rule is to never give out your cryptocurrency private key or sign a smart contract that you don’t trust.
When you give your cryptocurrency details to the wrong website or person, they may gain access to your cryptocurrency wallet and steal your assets. Because blockchain transactions can’t be reversed, you’re unlikely to recover any crypto lost to fraud or scams.
Are Crypto Faucets Worth It?
If you want to make a few bucks here and there and get paid in cryptocurrency, crypto faucets could be worth it. Students or anyone with extra time can participate in small online tasks and get paid for their clicks and attention, and the fact you get paid in crypto is exciting.
However, you’re probably not going to make thousands of dollars from crypto faucets. Crypto faucets can be fun to earn a small amount of cryptocurrency, but they’re not going to make you rich.
And the main downside of using crypto faucets is the opportunity cost of your time. Other side hustles like online freelancing pay way more than any crypto faucet, and you can use the money you earn to invest in crypto more effectively.
Plus, there are other ways to get free crypto that are potentially more lucrative than relying on faucets.
For example, Coinbase has an educational program called Coinbase Earn that pays you with free crypto just for learning about different blockchain projects and tokens. You can usually snag $20 to $35 worth of free crypto in about 10 minutes through this program; much more than you'll get after hours of using a faucet.
Similarly, token airdrops often award early project supporters and social media followers with free tokens. And while many token airdrops are for projects that don't go anywhere, they're still effective ways to get free crypto.
Finally, you can use a variety of crypto savings accounts to purchase crypto and then earn passive income with it. For example, Celsius and Hodlnaut let you earn 10% APY or more on dozens of cryptocurrencies. So with a small amount of Bitcoin or other token, you can steadily earn additional crypto passively.
The Bottom Line
There are plenty of crypto faucets out there, and the legitimate ones let you earn small amounts of free crypto for completing short tasks.
You can't earn a lot of crypto with faucets, and even if you grind out surveys and online offers, you're probably making a few dollars per hour at most.
However, if you're looking for free crypto and want to have some fun, crypto faucets are a viable strategy. Just remember to keep your private keys secure, and when you earn enough crypto to cash out, move your assets to your own crypto wallet to make sure they don't disappear from the faucet one day.
Eric Rosenberg is a financial writer, speaker, and consultant based in Ventura, California. He holds an undergraduate finance degree from the University of Colorado and an MBA in finance from the University of Denver. After working as a bank manager and then nearly a decade in corporate finance and accounting, Eric left the corporate world for full-time online self-employment. His work has been featured in online publications including Business Insider, Nerdwallet, Investopedia, The Balance, HuffPo, Investor Junkie, and other fine financial blogs and publications. When away from the computer, he enjoys spending time with his wife and three children, traveling the world, and tinkering with technology. Connect with him and learn more at EricRosenberg.com.