Don't Say There's Nothing to Do in a Bear Market, These Four Types of Smart People Are Already Quietly Making Money

Author: Zun

Compiled by: Yuliya, PANews

PANews Editor's Note: In the current Crypto market, many complain that their timelines are filled with noise and meaningless debates. It seems the era of making easy money (like Play-to-Earn, Move-to-Earn, or testnet airdrops) is long gone. However, opportunities haven't disappeared; they've just changed form. Author Zun reviews the cyclical trends of the Crypto market and details several current pathways that can genuinely yield profits. Below is the compiled original text:

Honestly, open your Twitter timeline, scroll for two minutes, what do you see?

• You'll see people comparing four L2 networks that no one uses;

• You'll see people posting Crypto influencer tier rankings just to drive engagement;

• You'll see people spreading misinformation......

So basically, it's mostly noise.

But just because the Twitter timeline seems dead, doesn't mean the opportunities have died with it. Opportunities still exist; they just look completely different from what most people are used to.

Past Trends

If you've been in the Crypto space long enough, you know this market operates in waves. Every cycle, every season, even every quarter brings a completely different Meta (core gameplay). And whoever figures out the current Meta early gets to eat.

Think back to 2021, Play-to-Earn was all the rage. Axie Infinity even became a full-time income source for people in Southeast Asia, with many families in the Philippines participating in Axie scholarship programs. The game was simple: buy NFT characters, play the game, earn tokens, then cash out.

Then Move-to-Earn rose with StepN. Suddenly, everyone was buying NFT sneakers just to earn money by walking. It might sound absurd, but people were indeed making hundreds of dollars a week just from their daily steps. Step App, GetKicks, Walken, and a host of copycats followed. Simply put, if you understood the mechanism and got in early, you could make money.

After that, the NFT era arrived, and flipping jpegs became the most profitable activity in the entire Crypto space. But that era is now over.

Then the era of testnets and airdrop farming began. For nearly a year and a half, the trend was simple: find a project backed by top VCs, use their testnet, interact with their contracts, bridge some funds, and wait to claim your airdrop. It was the simplest Meta ever generated in Crypto. People with no coding skills, no capital, and no social media following were farming five-figure airdrops just by clicking buttons on testnets.

But that era is also fading. Project founders are getting greedy, allocating smaller portions of tokens to airdrops. Besides, the Sybil attack problem is another reason this Meta is ending.

So now we are in a period with no Play-to-Earn trend, no Move-to-Earn trend, and testnet interactions aren't what they used to be. Twitter timelines are full of people arguing over trivial matters, posting engagement bait, or sharing posts about hacks/exploits because that's the only news cycle left in Crypto right now.

Current Hidden Wealth Codes: Four Real Income Sources

But here's what I'm observing: while 90% of Crypto Twitter is busy chasing clout, a small subset of users is quietly making real money.

1. X Platform Monetization:

This might be the most obvious one, but many still underestimate it. X officially dubbed 2026 the "Year of the Creator" and even doubled the creator ad revenue sharing pool. Earnings are primarily based on impressions from verified Premium users. Some Crypto creators are now making anywhere from $500 to $2000 per month just from X's revenue share, without any single sponsorship deal. It won't make you rich, but it's stable income in the current market.

2. Ambassador Programs:

This path is severely underrated. Projects aren't dumping money on random KOLs to shill their tokens anymore. Instead, they are building structured ambassador programs that pay for actual work on a monthly basis. Alchemy Pay offers a base salary of 200 USDT per month plus uncapped performance bonuses. Then Injective has the Ninja Masters program, offering tiered token rewards. These are real jobs with actual pay.

3. Discord Moderators:

I believe a lot of people in this space are making stable income by moderating Discord servers for projects. You just answer questions, manage the community, handle tickets, ban scammers, and get paid. It's that simple.

4. Developer Programs:

This is the one I most want to talk about because I think it's the real opportunity for those with skills, and honestly, it's the path I've chosen for myself.

I want to give a shoutout to @realchriswilder. His profile shows he has around 3000 followers now, and he started with even fewer.

Today, many content creators will tell you to grow your account, post viral tweets, get engagement, build an audience. Honestly, if you want to be a content creator, that's all correct.

But Chris chose a different path based on what he's actually good at. He knows how to code and loves it. So, he started building on various projects and protocols. He joined developer programs and started earning income from that work, not from tweeting.

This is the part most people miss. You don't need to be a content creator to make money in Crypto. You don't even need a huge following. If you can code, the entire ecosystem is filled with opportunities specifically for people like you right now.

Here are some examples of active developer programs:

• Zama recently launched the Mainnet Season 2 of their Developer Program, offering over 15,000 cUSDT in rewards across three tracks. The Builder track requires delivering a privacy dApp using Zama's protocol; the Bounty track requires building AI agent skills for FHE; and there's a special APAC-focused bounty powered by OpenBuild.

• Arc also launched their Architects program to recognize active developer contributors. You can earn points by answering technical questions, publishing tutorials or tools, and mentoring other developers. Top contributors get roles like Community Moderators, Meetup Organizers, Technical Speakers, and Regional Leads.

• Ink (by Kraken) is running their Developer Program with two active tracks. The Spark track offers micro-grants of 500 to 5000 USDC for small projects (like tools, bots, and mini dApps) with a very fast review process. Forge is the flagship track, offering milestone-based grants of up to 200,000 USDC for teams scaling actual products with live traction on Ink.

Core Takeaway and Advice

The reason I'm writing all this is not to give you a checklist and tell you to go do one of these things. It's to get you to think about something more fundamental.

From the inside, every bear market feels the same. The Twitter timeline has nothing good on it, everything changes over time, and the prevailing feeling is that "there's nothing to do." But that's never the truth. What changes between cycles isn't whether opportunities exist, but what form they take.

• In 2021, opportunity looked like playing video games;

• In 2022, it looked like walking;

• In 2023, it looked like clicking buttons on testnets;

• And in 2026, it looks like building, creating, moderating, and bug hunting. Only the form of the Meta changes; the opportunities don't disappear.

But then you have to look inward and figure out where you actually fit. Not where you wish you fit, not where Crypto Twitter tells you to go. But where your actual skills and situation place you.

If you're good at writing and creating content, the X monetization path and ambassador programs make sense for you. If you're a community-oriented person who enjoys managing and organizing, Discord moderator and community roles are tangible income sources. If you're a developer, those developer programs and bounties are sitting right there for you. If you have security knowledge, the whitehat bounty space is more lucrative than ever.

The worst thing you can do right now is sit there, scroll through the noisy timeline, and conclude that "nothing is left." The people making money in this bear market aren't sitting around waiting for the next testnet Meta. They figured out what they're good at, found the part of the ecosystem that values that skill, and are quietly putting in the work!