Everyone in crypto loves to pretend they only ever bought Bitcoin at $200 and held it with monk-like discipline. Meanwhile, most of us actually made our first real gains in the wild west of absolute nonsense tokens that had no business pumping as hard as they did.

This is the story of five certified “what was I even holding?” coins that somehow paid me better than many “serious” projects ever did.

1. Atomic Wallet Coin ($AWC)

The first one takes me back to the golden days of referral hustling: Atomic Wallet Coin from Atomic Wallet, the first wallet token.

Back then, they had a reward program that was honestly insane. You could refer new users, they would sign up, and you would get paid in their token. Combine that with a writing competition on Publish0x, and suddenly I was stacking this thing without putting in a single dollar of my own money. At the time, it felt like arcade points, not real value.

Then the market did what the market does during hype cycles: it sent the price flying. Instead of marrying the bag, I dumped it into $BNB. That trade aged beautifully, because I am still holding most of that $BNB today, while Atomic Wallet Coin faded back into the shadows where most wallet tokens live.

2. DeFiChain ($DFI)

The second one was $DFI, the token tied to the whole DeFiChain narrative and heavily associated with Julian Hosp.

At first, it looked like a well-oiled machine. Big vision, loud community, and once again, a referral program that was basically a degen’s dream. I earned a pile of $DFI tokens just by bringing in users and participating in the ecosystem. For a while, the number went up, and everything felt genius. But as always in crypto, vibes can change fast. Complexity increased, trust decreased, and the shine wore off when shady things began.

The key move was not getting in; it was getting out early enough. Because I earned most of it rather than buying in, selling into strength felt a lot easier, and that decision saved me from riding it all the way back down.

3. Ampleforth Governance Token ($FORTH)

Then we have one of the most perfect examples of “free money is still money if you actually sell it”: the $FORTH token.

I received that one as an airdrop because I had interacted with the original Ampleforth token I had earned through Publish0x activities. One day, there are new tokens in the wallet, governance this, DAO that, big promises. Fast-forward, and the place is basically a ghost town.

No meaningful proposals, no real ecosystem, just a price chart slowly leaking hope. It is the kind of token that teaches you a brutal but valuable lesson: governance tokens with no actual governance are just decorative. If you sold early, you won. If you held waiting for a renaissance, you learned something instead.

4. Loopring ($LRC)

Loopring was a different beast. I earned a solid stack of it back when it was used as a tipping token on Publish0x, and I was also involved in managing a Telegram group connected to the project, which came with token rewards. At one point, Loopring looked like it had real momentum and serious tech behind it.

Then the original energy faded, key people moved on, and the whole thing slowly drifted into that uncomfortable zone between “not officially dead” and “nobody’s home.” There were questionable decisions, messy communication, and a community trying to hold onto past glory.

Still, thanks to early earnings and some well-timed exits, I walked away with a profit. Today, it is more of a reminder that even projects with real tech can lose their spark if leadership and direction disappear.

5. Biswap ($BSW)

And then there is Biswap, a DEX that once lived on the Binance Smart Chain and was incredibly generous during its growth phase.

Between referral rewards and high-paying writing competitions, it was another case where I accumulated tokens without risking my own capital. For a while, it looked like one of those smaller platforms that might actually carve out a niche.

Then came the security issues, the loss of trust, and the slow fade-out that so many DeFi projects experience after a major hit. The platform wound down, activity dried up, and the token followed. But because I treated those rewards like a paycheck rather than a long-term marriage, I was able to convert a good chunk into more solid assets before things went south.

My Final Conclusion

Looking back, the common theme is not that these were amazing projects. Some weren’t. Some started strong and fell apart. Some were basically hype with a logo. The real edge was earning tokens through referrals, writing, community work, and airdrops, then being emotionally detached enough to sell when the market gave me the chance. Free tokens can turn into very real gains if you don’t fall in love with them.

If you enjoy honest stories from the trenches of crypto and not just polished success narratives, but the messy, funny, and sometimes ridiculous paths to profit, make sure to follow on Publish0x and Medium for more articles like this.

And if you want to explore the ecosystem where I rotated a lot of those gains and still use one of my core coins today, you can check out Binance and see how everything from trading to on-chain activity connects in one place.