It is no news that the Crypto market is unpredictable. Therefore, a sound strategy in place can help greatly to weather the storms of a bear market, rug pulls, scams as well as unnecessary losses from trading. Here follows my best practices for 2022 to ensure that I have some edge over the Crypto markets. NOTE: This is not financial advice, as always DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH.

1) Obtain cashback from all your purchases:

Last year, I made tens of thousands of Euros in purchases on my non-crypto Visa Card, but got NOTHING to show for it. This is a regular occurance for most people who use banks, whether it is grocery purchases, clothes purchases, entertainment, health and even transport services. So it is a no brainer to benefit for something I do already, which is BUYING in stores in my town or while travelling. Through, Binance Visa Card, which is free to obtain here I am able to get Cashback for my purchases wherever I swipe. In fact, from December last year, I made a conscious effort to transfer money to my Binance Visa card in order to exclusively use my Binance Card for my daily card purchases and payments. I will update in another article, my Cashback reward amount thanks to Binance Visa Card as the year goes.

2) Whereever possible, make small initial test transfers: 

It won´t ALWAYS be possible to make small test transfers BEFORE the real transfer amount, but I highly recommend this practice. WHY? To avoid the risk of losing all your Crypto funds because of any reason whatsoever including incompatible networks, scams or wrong addresses. I say wheerever and wherenever possible because in some cases due to elevated fees especially on Etherium, it can be costly to send several transfers. In my case, just because I can help it I try to avoid Crypto transfers that involve the Etherium network. In any case, it is advisable to inform yourself about the appropiate Exchange or service according to your profile of funds, knowledge level and risk tolerance. 

3) Use Exchanges and Wallets with Minimal Fees and No Charges:

For me, before I commit to a Wallet or an exchange I learn about the services, benefits and fees. It is for this reason that I discovered Celsius Network doesn't charge any fees for their services. There are no withdrawal fees, no transfer fees, no transaction fees, no origination fees, nothing! The following table from coindataflow.com is still valid for the different fees of exchanges to give you an idea of what fees to expect. As you can see below, from wellknown exchanges, Binance has fees at 0.1%, followed by KuCoin at 0.15%, then Huobi at 0.2%.

4) Activate a 2 Factor Authentification (2FA) for Elevated Security levels.

One can never be too careful nor too secure in Crypto universe. It is for this reason that it is imperative to activate a 2 Factor Authentification. It provides that extra security that puts you at ease each time you access your Crypto assets no matter what wallet or Cryptocurrency Exchange. In fact, most exchanges encourage you to activate it after you have completed the KYC protocol and before you start to make any major transactions in and out of the platform. Here is an example of how to activate a 2FA for Coinbase. The process is similar for most if not all of the cryptocurrrency exchanges, where after downloading the 2FA of Google, you scan the QR code and activate the 2FA protocol.

5) Own your Keys, Not your keys not your wallet!

The phrase above is not just a catchy slogan. It is real, and the way to ensure you have full control of your Crypto assets is to own your keys and wallet through a Crypto hardware wallet. There are some excellent and robust wallets, which will give you a peace of mind away from hackers and other Crypto scams. This article about the most frequent crypto scams will help educate and inform you to venture with security. 

6) Don´t put all your Crypto eggs in  one basket

Fortunately there are various options for all types of Crypto investors to enter into the world of Crypto. The choices have their pros and cons. The pros are a wide selection of options according to the profile of the investor profile and risk tolerance. Just to give some examples, Nexo has the following security characteristics, which makes it attractive from a security and robustness point of view :

• Top-tier insurance of up to $375M on all custodial assets.
• Military-grade security including cold storage in Class III vaults through SOC 2 Type 2 certified crypto custodian BitGo.
• ISO/IEC 27001:2013 compliant information security management systems.
• All funds are 100% asset-backed by Nexo’s portfolio of 200-500% overcollateralized crypto credit lines.

Since there is no federal FDIC insurance policy to protect Crypto users from loss as it does with fiat, it is important to register with exchanges that go out of their way to insure or offer some guarantees of protection against loss or theft. By spreading your Crypto assets in various exchanges including cold storage as in point 5 above, you reduce the risk.The disadvantage is your focus and attention is spread accross many exchanges therefore you require more effort to monitor your Crypto as well as other factors like regulations and market changes. In terms of Coinbase, they claim the following regarding their insurance:

Our custodial accounts have been established in a manner to make available pass-through FDIC insurance up to the per-depositor coverage limit then in place (currently $250,000 per individual). FDIC pass-through insurance protects funds held on behalf of a Coinbase customer against the risk of loss should any FDIC-insured bank(s) where we maintain custodial accounts fail.

7) Store and guard your seed phrases safely

There are many ways to save your SEED phrases safely. One of the simplest form is simply writing them down on a piece of paper. Remember that if you lose your SEED phrases, you will never be able to access the Crypto assets located in the said wallets. Many online wallets strongly advise against sharing your SEED phrases with anyone. In fact, they themselves  do not have access to them, so it is in your best interest to save your SEED phrases very safely and never share them with anyone, no matter how convincing they sound. No customer service, nor exchange nor Airdrop should ever require that you provide your SEED phrase.

8) Check & verify your transaction information

Usually, before you deposit or withdraw Crypto, the exchange warns you about the dangers of using incorrect addresses and incompatible exchanges. The best way to avoid losses as a result, is simply to check, double check and triple check. It might seem tedious but this level of dilligence will save you from very unpleasant situations. One way of ensuring the accurancy of the transaction is scanning the QR code that accompanies the transaction address or simply copy it as prompted. In any case, in addition, I would check digit by digit the address...

9) If possible use a separate phone for your Crypto Apps and Authenticator

If you can afford to, then get a separate phone which you keep safely at home to access your Crypto assets. Though most latest smartphones require fingerprint authentification, it is always risky for your phone with your Crypto assets to end up in the wrong hands. If you cannnot, opt for this solution, then keep your phone safe with strong passwords and a fingerprint access.

10)Don´t open your Crypto Apps on Third Party Internet Service Providers

Whether you are on your laptop or phone, avoid using WIFI from Third Party as this can present all sorts of risks from hackers. Some Crypto platforms and exchanges, have some in-built security measures that require you to provide extra proof if you access the application or website from an unknown IP address. 

11) Get  a reputable Antivirus & whitelist desired Crypto addresses

Get a secure and reputable antivirus and in addition whitelist addresses so that in the highly unlikely case of a hack, the criminals cannot send Crypto to addresses other than the ones you have Whitelisted.In this way, even if they access, they can ONLY send to your address! The exchanges BlocFi, Celsius and WhiteBit offer this whitelisting options.

ADDITIONAL METHODS: How I earn money online passively

I share my internet connection and earn money, simply earn for being online with Honeygain.

I also earn in Cryptocurrencies:

By writing on noise.cash and read.cash

I earn Bitcoins from Cointiply by filling out questionairres and participating in chats or faucets.

Moreover, I earn interest of my earned Crytocurrencies therefore compounding and growing my earnings here.

MY OTHER CRYPTO EARNINGS & SAVINGS:

1) Through staking on Binance here. Use the link to join Binance and earn on your Crypto, stake , swap your Crypto and participate in Launchpads.

2) Receive 6.20 APY on my Bitoin thanks to Celsius Network deposited every Monday. [ Use my referral code 184283812c when signing up and earn $50 in BTC with your first transfer of $400 or more-You will be required to maintain the balance for 30days!]

3) Earn NEXO passively off my other Crypto investments on NEXO. Top up tp $100 or more, we’ll reward both of you with $25 in BTC. Moreover you can earn up to 17% on Polkadot and Avalanche in a current earnings campaign. 

4) Obtain 3.50 interest rate on my BAT Tokens from BlocFI.

5)Participate in missions and other campaigns to earn Crypto.com´s native token CRO here.

6) LEARN & EARN  from COINBASE a variety of Altcoins like Stellar Lumens (XLM), The Graph (GRT), Loopring (LRC) and many more. Get your $10 BTC from Coinbase if you trade, i.e buy or sell $100 in Crypto.