Bear Market Survival Guide: Three Cryptocurrency Profit Strategies That Don't Rely on Market Trends

Original Title: 3 ways to earn in crypto

Original Author: The DeFi Investor

Original Translator: Yuliya, PANews

Despite the recent downturn in the cryptocurrency market, there are still profitable opportunities that do not rely on the rise of token prices. In fact, beyond traditional traders and investors, many participants have achieved substantial returns in this field through other means. This article will delve into three profit models that do not depend on market trends from a technical and strategic perspective.

1. Airdrops and Yield Farming

In the current DeFi ecosystem, liquidity mining and airdrop mechanisms centered around leading assets like BTC, ETH, and SOL are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Taking the Pendle protocol as an example, its smart contracts support locking stablecoin assets to obtain a fixed annual percentage yield (APY) of 19%, as well as a fixed annual return of 12% on BTC assets. By optimizing strategy combinations and capital efficiency, professional operators can achieve stablecoin annual yields of 50-80%.

2. Short Arbitrage on High FDV New Tokens

New tokens recently listed on Binance

Technical analysis of newly listed tokens on Binance indicates that the vast majority of tokens exhibit a clear downward trend after the TGE. This market phenomenon primarily stems from two core factors:

• Severe token decentralization: On-chain data shows that tens of thousands of tokens are issued daily.
• Imbalanced valuation system: Project teams tend to realize early investor cash-outs through overvaluation models.

As the market saying goes, "Opportunities often lie within chaos." This market inefficiency provides significant shorting opportunities for professional traders. Derivatives trading platforms like Hyperliquid offer effective trading channels for short strategies by quickly launching perpetual contracts for new tokens. However, it is crucial to note that due to the high volatility characteristics of newly issued tokens, a low-leverage strategy is recommended to optimize the risk-reward ratio, and small-scale trials should be conducted to accumulate strategic experience.

3. Funding Rate Arbitrage (Delta Neutral Strategy)

In the pricing mechanism of the perpetual contract market, the funding rate serves as a periodic settlement mechanism for both long and short positions, providing significant profit space for arbitrageurs.

• When the funding rate is positive, longs need to pay fees to shorts;
• When the funding rate is negative, shorts pay longs.

Professional traders can capture funding rate spreads by constructing delta-neutral portfolios. Specifically, when observing a significantly positive funding rate, one can simultaneously establish a $1,000 BTC spot long position and a $1,000 contract short position (the funding rate can be monitored through the Coinglass platform), thereby obtaining stable returns through a market-neutral strategy.

Currently, protocols like Ethena and Resolv have developed automated funding rate arbitrage systems to provide users with passive income. However, by manually operating multi-variety arbitrage strategies, although time-consuming, it is still possible to achieve higher returns. Investors can use the "Funding Comparison" feature on the Hyperliquid platform to find arbitrage opportunities.

Conclusion

Even during market downturns, there are still numerous opportunities in the cryptocurrency space. Contrary to common perception, the crypto market still exhibits many inefficiencies, providing rich profit space for arbitrageurs. It is recommended that each participant find a specific area where they excel and can profit, and continuously refine their skills to strive to become an expert in that field.