It was that time of year again—those final weeks in January that feel like three fortnights. Fiat liquidity was at an all-time low, and this time, the tokens came to the rescue. The staked tokens, rewards, and DCA'd tokens are how I got through the dreadful month of January.

While most of my fiat funds were spent in December and early January, there wasn’t much to worry about. Different tokens from different chains did the trick, becoming my primary source of funds in the final stretch of the month. It all started when I checked the rewards accumulated in Bonk https://bonkrewards.com/—a few months' worth of staking rewards. Since the tokens were locked for 12 months, I only collected the rewarded portion while keeping the rest untouched.

I also unstaked a few Cosmos tokens—namely Osmosis, Atom, and Injective. These were staked in 2024 with different validators on the Keplr wallet. While the unstaking process took 21 days, I was still able to claim the staking rewards in the meantime. Additionally, I used Black Panther https://trade.blackpanther.fi/vault, which was grid trading BTC, to withdraw some sats. Fortunately, my portfolio was up 5% since opening the position in mid-late 2024.

A big shout-out to Jupiter for their Jupuary airdrop https://jupuary.jup.ag/dashboard, which landed in late January. I qualified, claimed the JUP airdrop, and staked a portion right after. The Jupiter team did a fantastic job with the airdrop allocation and the Catstanbul conference, giving great insight into their projects and plans. Speaking of Jupiter, I also closed a BTC position I had been trading on their perps platform. The platform is smooth, easy to use, and the mobile UI is next-level—pun intended.

Using these DeFi protocols, I was able to get through January. To be honest, I’ve learned a lot about Web3 and plan to apply the same strategy in future Januaries.

🚨 Disclaimer: This is not financial advice—just something I explored and found useful. Always do your own research!