“I could have made a few millions if I had held it for 4–5 months”: how to earn on crypto presales

On January 23, we invited two crypto experts — one who invests in and one who promotes crypto projects — to talk to us at an Ask-Me-Anything session on our Twitter Space about whether and how you can make money on the pre launch phase of a token.

Our experts:

• Bert Blancheton — Marketing Lead at smart contract-based wallet Braavos
• Sjuul (aka AltCryptoGems) — full-time trader and Twitter crypto influencer

You can listen to the whole recording here, and below we publish the most interesting answers for you.

(By the way, don’t forget that you can follow new AMA sessions, news, and interviews on our Twitter)

Why participate in presales, and is it worth it?

Did you participate in social media activities to earn early bird tokens?

Sjuul: I’ve been in many public presales because it is easy and does not require much money — $10–20, maybe. This is the difference between public and private presales. The second ones are open only [to] a separate group of people, and they invest at least $5,000 each. But public presales have one disadvantage: since tokens are easy to get and cheap to buy, once it is launched, there are not so many people who want to buy them.

So it is much more possible to earn on [a] private presale. For example, this is how I bought a FLOKI coin early, and after the launch, it went up crazy. Unfortunately, I sold it too soon. I made 20k, even though I could have made a few million if I had held it for 4–5 months.

Bert: I can [speak] from another side because I [have done] many presales myself, and I remember one during the bull market when we engaged 1.2 million users on this presale. So Sjuul is right; public presales are very in demand.

Is it worth participating in social media activities to get tokens for free?

Sjuul: It depends on how much time it will take and how much you value it. Because if, after a few clicks, you’ll have an opportunity to earn $10–15 in tokens (and you have to do a lot of clicks to increase your chances to win) and you’re making $5,000 in a month, I would say it’s not worth it.

But whenever you’re short of money and have spare time in the evening and want to earn a few extra bucks, I’d say join it.

Do professional traders join such presale activities?

Sjuul: Presales with money — yes, giveaways are more for beginners. And it is actually a good way to build a $100 starter portfolio.

Bert: Almost everyone who comes to crypto is a one-time airdropper. Maybe for a few days or a few weeks, but everyone wants to give it a try.

Some of them then became professional airdroppers, and some find interesting projects and stay there already as a part of the community.

How to choose the right presales to participate?

What are your tips on choosing which presales to participate in?

Sjuul: As with other kinds of investing, do your research. Check [who] is behind the projects and what the tokenomics [are]: do they have a burn mechanism?

Also, it is crucial for a project to have a [real] community and not a fake one — I mean, not just the number of bots on Twitter. And to make sure the community is not fake, you have to be part of it. Talk with people, and see if they are real.

You also can say that the community is fake when they have thousands of followers but only a few likes on posts.

What are the early signs of a scam in the presale stage?

Sjuul: As for tokenomics, scam projects usually reserve a lot of their supply (for instance, 49%) for a team. And you can see it if they are launching only 51% of the supply. Also, scam projects usually copy other projects’ websites to the point where they don’t even change the domain.

If one has $1,000 to invest, it’s better to try young promising projects or Bitcoin?

Sjuul: I’d go to altcoins — if you want to earn more. Because even if Bitcoin is 3x, you earn only $3,000, while altcoins can go to the moon.

Bert: But if you don’t have time to research, you better buy Bitcoin — it’s safer.

Why consider only projects with a community?

What is the connection between price and community? And why do blockchain projects need a community at all?

Sjuul: I think the community is essential precisely to avoid the situation I mentioned in the beginning — when a token is launched, and no one needs it anymore. If you have a community, you will have people interested in the project. Accordingly, there will be demand, and the price will rise.

Bert: In general, I agree with the previous answer, but I also think that the value of the project is not based on the community. On the contrary, a live community is the result of the capacity of the project. It shows that the project has a mission that unites people. Later, these people will also help develop the project by giving ideas about where it should go. And that will lead to an increase in the value of the tokens.

Can a bad project have a good community?

Bert: Good marketing can bring in many subscribers, but it will not be the kind of active community we can call good. People will come because of marketing perks like giveaways and leave because they don’t see the value of the project.

What about the reverse situation: does a good project (= token) have a chance without a good community?

Bert: In Web3, you need to get an active community. The reason is because of the essence of Web3. Web3 is decentralized, which means no community = no project.

Sjuul: I guess having a good product and a good idea behind your project automatically gets the community going. However, I always check before investing whether the team has a marketing budget, because if they do not, it would be really hard to launch a token.

Bert: Yes, the budget is essential, not only for marketing but also for salaries and other expenses. I’d say a team needs about $150,000 to launch their project properly.