Who is the top money-making player in this crypto cycle?
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Who is the top money-making player in this crypto cycle?
It is the worst of times in the crypto world, yet it is also the best of times for Bitcoin buyers, on-chain General P, and top-tier airdrop players.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsBy: 1912212.eth, Foresight News
"I lost over a million last year," Xiao Su told Foresight News.
As a seasoned retail investor in the crypto space, he bought a large number of VC coins during the previous bull cycle. In 2021, when Bitcoin surged past $67,000 to reach an all-time high, many VC coins rose even faster than Bitcoin itself—Xiao Su’s first fortune came from this wave.
But markets are unpredictable. This cycle has hit him hard. Since 2024, several VC coins he heavily invested in have performed poorly, continuously declining. Forced to become a "diamond hand," he eventually couldn't hold on anymore and had to cut losses at rock-bottom prices. After multiple such rounds, most of his accumulated gains have been wiped out.
"Why is it so hard to make money this time? Who exactly is profiting now?" Xiao Su is deeply puzzled. To him, the era of blindly buying and holding crypto to earn passive profits during past bull runs has now shifted into one where only those who act fast can survive. Market participants—including VCs, market makers, exchanges, project teams, retail investors, and airdrop farming studios—are all facing significant new challenges.
Xiao Su's experience is not unique. Not only retail veterans like him, but even some well-known crypto venture capital firms have recently announced strategic shifts, openly admitting that their primary market investments this cycle have largely failed.
Yet historically speaking, 2024 to 2025 has been a monumental period for cryptocurrencies. The approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs triggered a flood of traditional financial institutions entering the market. After Trump returned to office, crypto regulations entered an unprecedentedly lenient phase. A series of favorable developments pushed Bitcoin's price from its bottom of $15,000 to surpass $100,000, setting a new record high.
Investor excitement for a violent bull market peaked.
But Ethereum, another major market leader, shattered investor dreams. This cycle, Ethereum didn’t even reach a new all-time high. The two key historical drivers—DeFi and NFT—failed to spark renewed enthusiasm. Its founder Vitalik and the Ethereum Foundation faced heavy criticism. With ETH underperforming, narratives around Layer 2, restaking, and ZK collapsed. Many related ecosystem tokens delivered deeply disappointing results.
The only real hotspot—the Meme coin frenzy—was in many ways retail investors venting frustration against the inflated valuations of VC coins. VC funds had already captured nearly all returns before these tokens even listed, leaving retail investors with nothing but losses and "endless down trends."
Yet within this raw, brutal "casino," only a tiny minority of sharp traders, insiders, and token-issuing groups walked away rich. Most retail investors chasing Meme coins grew increasingly battered through repeated lottery-like gambling games, eventually realizing the so-called wealth effect was merely others showing off their profits.
So who are the real winners? Foresight News interviewed multiple industry insiders to find answers to this very question.
Bitcoin Holders: Winners Beyond Imagination
Bitcoin buyers were undoubtedly among the biggest beneficiaries of this cycle. On May 10, data from Bitcoin Magazine Pro showed that after Bitcoin surpassed $100,000, only 0.55% of addresses remained underwater. This figure indicates that the vast majority of Bitcoin holders are now profitable. At the time of writing, Bitcoin has broken through $110,000, setting yet another record high—no one is losing money on Bitcoin anymore; every buyer is now in profit.
NDV (NextGen Digital Venture), founded in 2022, is one such success story. Jason (@jhy256), its founder, told Foresight News that NDV’s first fund fully exited in February this year with a total return of 3.75x, and has recently started fundraising for its second fund.
Jason has extensive experience in venture capital, having worked at institutions including Huaxing Capital and Qiming Venture Partners. In 2023, at age 34, he left Blue Pool Capital—the family office co-founded by Jack Ma and Joe Tsai—to establish NextGen Digital Venture.
“In the broader world, external demand remains strong. Many institutions haven’t even allocated 0.1%, so they start there. They’re indifferent to short-term volatility. If traditional large funds allocate just 1% of their assets to Bitcoin, that would be a massive inflow for this asset class.” In its first year, Jason placed most of the fund’s allocation into GBTC. Last year, he shifted strategy toward crypto-related stocks like Coinbase and Strategy. These moves perfectly aligned with market trends.
On the topic of Bitcoin’s surge, he emphasized the critical role of spot ETFs: “Traditional finance money can now flow directly from ETFs into BTC. That’s a key reason why BTC has consistently outperformed many altcoins. Perhaps Trump’s election and his own token launch might create new opportunities for other digital currencies.”
In January 2024, the approval of Bitcoin spot ETFs became a defining milestone of this cycle. To date, net inflows into Bitcoin spot ETFs have exceeded $42.7 billion. Institutions like BlackRock and Fidelity aggressively purchased these ETFs. Thanks to early entry, low costs, and steady holding, they emerged as transparent, undisputed winners. These funds primarily come from hedge funds, pension funds, and family offices—marking a shift from retail speculation to institutional investment in the crypto market.
Beyond ETFs, listed companies joining the Bitcoin-buying spree also reaped huge rewards.
U.S.-listed Strategy, known for its aggressive Bitcoin acquisition strategy, saw both its stock price and unrealized gains soar. As of May 18, 2025, Strategy held 576,230 Bitcoins, acquired at a total cost of approximately $40.18 billion, averaging about $69,726 per Bitcoin. After Bitcoin surpassed $109,700, its unrealized profit briefly exceeded $23.039 billion. Japanese-listed Metaplanet holds 7,800 Bitcoins, with a historical average purchase price of 13.51 million JPY per coin (about $94,165.7). Based on Bitcoin’s price of $109,000, Metaplanet’s holdings have generated unrealized gains of $121 million.
Since its inception, Bitcoin’s long-term appreciation has rewarded every diamond-hand holder—not even excluding El Salvador, whose national Bitcoin holdings have yielded unrealized profits exceeding $357 million.
Bitcoin-related businesses such as mining hardware manufacturers, crypto infrastructure providers, and financial derivatives have naturally thrived too. Take Canaan Inc. as an example: financial reports show that in Q4 2024, revenue grew 80.9% and mining income surged 312.5%. The company noted that customer orders for Q1 2025 are already scheduled into Q2, indicating sustained momentum in miner sales.
Meme Kings: Single-Token Gains of Millions
"My total profit has reached 100x, mainly from AI, deSci, and TRUMP last year," yuyue told Foresight News.
yuyue, a prominent on-chain KOL, gained fame after making millions from TRUMP. According to widely circulated community screenshots, she bought TRUMP for $158,000 and briefly achieved over $2 million in unrealized gains.
She entered the space in March 2022, initially seeking an internship. Later, through airdrops and community engagement, she met more people and began analyzing market opportunities. When the moment came, she boldly took positions—and achieved outsized results.
Over the past year, no sector in crypto has delivered stronger wealth effects than "Meme coins." Since early 2024, Meme coins have ignited an unprecedented craze across the crypto market. From WIF and BONK on Solana, PEPE and TURBO on Ethereum, to rapidly rising stars like DEGEN and MOCHI on Base, and even Meme assets within the Bitcoin ecosystem—each new trend quickly attracted tens of thousands of retail investors and speculators.
Meme coins are no longer just jokes—they’ve become experimental fields for new wealth distribution mechanisms. According to data from CoinGecko and Dune Analytics, in 2024 alone, the total market cap of Meme coins surged from under $2 billion to over $60 billion, a gain of more than 2,900%. Meme coins on Solana alone accounted for over one-third of that value. WIF rose from an initial market cap of less than $1 million to over $3 billion, delivering early holders returns exceeding 100,000x. One user bought a new Meme coin BOME for under $200 in April 2024 and saw their portfolio grow to over $2 million within just 72 hours.
These Meme coins often lack technical foundations or even formal whitepapers—sometimes just a slogan or a simple dog-themed avatar is enough to trigger millions in trading volume.
The craziest Meme wealth story belongs to TRUMP, the Meme coin launched ahead of Trump officially taking office. Traders like 0xSun, Dayu, Lengjing, and CryptoD each made tens of millions on a single position, shocking the entire crypto world. Yet such massive single-trade profits remain extremely rare. Position sizing and risk appetite are complex disciplines in themselves.
yuyue admitted her approach to position management is flexible—aside from Bitcoin, she doesn’t maintain long-term holdings elsewhere. In terms of trading style, “Currently there are ‘scanning chains’ and ‘second-stage’ approaches—these styles are clearly distinct, but I lean toward the second-stage method, which emphasizes narrative.”
She stressed that market participants must form independent judgments. For example, focusing on the second stage requires attention to narrative and market cap ranges, using these as bases for trading decisions—narratives that aren’t imagined, but supported by charts and market structure.
On-chain OG player "Bit Factory Director" also made a fortune during the Meme coin gold rush. He told Foresight News, “After earning dozens of times my investment in SHIB within weeks during the last cycle, I began my on-chain trading journey. Over the past couple of years trading Meme coins, I’ve made several million in profits, catching waves on ORDI, GOAT, and TRUMP.”
However, achieving such high returns isn’t easy. “Those who succeed usually invest immense time and effort into on-chain research—that’s what they deserve. Most people simply can’t do it.” he lamented.
Trading Meme coins demands greater skill than mainstream assets. Bit Factory Director said successful Meme trading requires identifying big figures, major trends, powerful narratives, and critical hotspots. “You can monitor short-term popularity by searching keywords or contract addresses on Twitter.”
His profits from Meme coins are partly reinvested into Bitcoin. “Now my portfolio is about 85% Bitcoin, 13% Ethereum and BNB, with the rest in various altcoins and Meme tokens.”
The Meme coin wealth myth temporarily faded during broader market weakness, and large public profit screenshots became rare on social media. Many dreamers chasing overnight riches repeatedly suffered setbacks in endless lottery-style gambling, oscillating between panic selling and watching tokens go to zero. Some returned to mainstream altcoins, while others sought opportunities in different sectors.
Possibly, every persistent Meme trader is waiting for the altcoin market to fully recover. Meanwhile, some players have already achieved success through disciplined strategies and relentless persistence—airdrop hunters being a prime example.
Skyfall Airdrops: From Mass Hype to Competitive Grind
“In 2023, the Arbitrum airdrop was my most profitable project—around 30 million RMB.” Famous airdrop hunter Fengmi told Foresight News.
With over a decade in traditional finance, having done hedge trading and investment banking, he entered crypto in 2017 via ICOs, then discovered airdrop farming through DeFi in 2020—launching a full-time pursuit that far outpaced mining or trading profits.
“In 2024, Wormhole brought even higher paper gains—its value at TGE even surpassed ARB. Unfortunately, poor timing in claiming and selling meant most gains stayed on paper, with little actually realized.”
The golden age of airdrops isn’t far behind us. During the 2020–2021 bull market, the explosion of DeFi, NFT, and Layer1/Layer2 projects created fertile ground for farming. Airdrops from protocols like Uniswap, 1inch, and dYdX routinely delivered thousands of dollars in rewards, drawing in countless retail users and early studios. Back then, barriers were low—ordinary users could participate with simple wallet actions or social tasks. It truly was the golden era of airdrops. At its peak, top-tier farmer Fengmi recalled: “During ENS’s token launch, single-account rewards exceeded 100,000 RMB—multi-account users became instantly wealthy. For PSP (Paraswap), each account started at $10,000.”
Gradually, the airdrop industry evolved from wild growth into professionalism. Studios increased efficiency via bulk accounts and automation scripts. Still, substantial airdrop wealth effects persisted.
Aptos and Sui testnet airdrops further fueled the hype, with some studios earning millions using multi-account strategies. To combat Sybil attacks, projects raised eligibility thresholds—requiring identity verification, on-chain behavior analysis, or community contributions. This made it harder for retail farmers, while technically equipped and resource-rich studios gained dominance.
Fengmi shared insights: First, choosing the right projects is paramount. “Life-changing airdrops only come from projects with real products, innovation, funding, and vision. No amount of grinding 100 low-quality activities can compensate. Better to go all-in on three promising ones than spread thin across thirty uncertain projects.” Second, participants must understand whom the project wants to reward—grasp protocol logic and characteristics, develop a clear macro view. The more you resemble a “real user” and think like a “developer,” the more likely you’ll qualify under high-weight distribution rules. Also, like professional traders, know when to cut losses decisively and walk away cleanly.
To him, airdrop farming isn’t isolated activity—it’s a structural arbitrage play. Treat farming as your “left hand”: low-cost, high-upside, trading time for opportunity. Meanwhile, use your “right hand” to position in secondary markets—holding core assets like BTC/ETH, or betting boldly on high-potential speculative plays like Memes. Left side secures certainty, right side gambles uncertainty. “This combination feels more stable and better suited to weather cycles.”
The airdrop scene remained hot in 2024. Projects like Starknet, Hyperliquid, Magic Eden, and Pudgy Penguins distributed hundreds of millions in tokens. But then market conditions shifted dramatically—from euphoria to downturn. Early sellers preserved profits, while diamond hands waiting for higher prices ended up providing exit liquidity for quicker players.
Fengmi reflected: “Airdrop farming was never mechanical assembly-line work. Every account, every transaction, every project token represents my personal interactions, records, patience—even losses. They’re not just numbers, but battles of strategy and luck, infused with intense emotion. Pouring time, gas fees, and capital into a project creates attachment. And ironically, this emotional bond became my biggest downfall: hesitating to sell when I should, lingering instead of walking away. I handed hard-earned gains back to the market—just accompanied it on a journey.”
Winners and losers always exist, and winners are few. Both individuals and studios have repeatedly been counter-farmed. After zkSync and LayerZero airdrops, the market erupted in complaints—retailers got almost nothing, farming studios suffered massive losses, some forced to shut down. Projects were heavily criticized, yet responded with firm stances. Since then, many projects have followed suit—issuing fewer or no airdrops at all.
Fengmi told Foresight News, “The wild west era of airdrop farming is long gone. The window where anyone could easily earn their first fortune through simple on-chain interactions has closed. We’re beyond the days of clicking a few buttons to get rich.”
When most find farming difficult, persistence becomes even harder. Many miss opportunities due to impatience. Fengmi analyzed the root cause: “Airdrops take forever to arrive, gas keeps burning, interactions feel dull, tasks grow increasingly bureaucratic, points become worthless. When rewards don’t materialize, doubt slowly erodes discipline, leading to complaints. But the biggest outcomes often lie just beyond the point where you almost gave up, where you almost believed it was useless. You must believe—results don’t happen first, they’re first believed, then realized.”
Fengmi also shared his failures: “I did extensive BTC staking interactions on Babylon, investing considerable funds and attention. The airdrop allocation turned out extremely limited—gains were painfully dismal.” He also went all-in on the Move ecosystem, including Aptos, investing over $4 million at peak valuation. But the entire ecosystem underperformed—no standout projects emerged, and official leadership lacked direction and top-tier execution capability.
Airdrop farming comes with its share of bitterness and sweetness.
Still, compared to buying tokens, airdrop hunting remains one of the few paths where small initial capital can generate life-changing returns. Multi-account and premium-account strategies remain viable, though increasingly dependent on sophistication. The game of cat-and-mouse with project teams continues to test farmers’ insight and execution.
Conclusion
The only constant in the crypto market is change. 'A day in crypto equals a year in the real world' may sound exaggerated, but it reflects the blistering pace of transformation. Missing signals or failing to act means missing opportunities—this is agonizing for those constantly chasing greater wealth.
Yet the most fascinating aspect of crypto is that just when market participants believe the era of wealth creation has ended, some overlooked corner or niche quietly grows stronger, building momentum for the next surge—drawing in curious young minds once again with astonishing profit potential.
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