An acquaintance of mine once told me: “Žan, crypto is for people who understand it. And I don’t understand a thing.”
Today, that person has more money in his crypto portfolio than he earned in his first year of employment. And when I ask him how he did it, he gives me the same answer every time: “I started. I just started.”
That’s the only secret there is in the world of cryptocurrencies. There’s no magic algorithm. There’s no hidden knowledge that the wealthy keep to themselves. There’s only the decision to start — and then the knowledge comes on its own, step by step.
This article was written for you. For those of you who have heard of cryptocurrencies and are curious, but don’t know where to even begin. For those of you who may have read an article once and got lost in the technical jargon. I promise you one thing: by the time you finish reading this article, you’ll know exactly what your next step is.
And if you want to take that next step together with me, live, with a real screen and real examples 👉 I invite you to my free online webinar
But first — let’s start at the beginning.
“Digital money” isn’t a good enough explanation
When someone asks what cryptocurrencies are, almost everyone answers: “It’s digital money.” And that answer is… technically correct. But completely useless for someone encountering this for the first time.
Let me give you a better explanation.
Imagine you live in a small village. In this village there is one bank, which holds all the villagers’ money. The bank decides how much money you can withdraw, when you can send it, and to whom. The bank holds all the keys. You have nothing but a promise that your money will be there when you need it.
Now imagine a different village. In this village there is no bank. But there is a book — a huge, thick book — that records every transaction. When Maria sends Peter 10 euros, it gets written in the book. When Peter returns 5 euros to Maria, that gets written down too. The book is kept at every villager’s home — everyone has their own copy. When a new transaction is recorded, it automatically updates for everyone. No one can erase what has been written. No one can forge an entry. And no one — no bank, no government, no institution — can tell Maria that she isn’t allowed to send money.
That book is the blockchain — a chain of blocks.
Cryptocurrencies are the money that flows through this book. They’re not in a bank. They’re not controlled by anyone. They’re yours — completely, absolutely yours — once you have them in your wallet.
That’s why millions of people around the world are choosing cryptocurrencies. Not because they’re “trendy.” But because they offer financial freedom that the traditional banking system never offered.
Bitcoin, Ethereum, and everything else — how to find your way around
There are more than ten thousand different cryptocurrencies in the world. When you hear that for the first time, the reaction is normal: “Oh my God, how am I supposed to make sense of this?”
The answer is simple: you don’t need to know all of them. You need to know three.
Bitcoin — digital gold
Bitcoin (abbreviation: BTC) is the first cryptocurrency that ever existed. It was created by an anonymous programmer (or group of programmers) under the pseudonym Satoshi Nakamoto and launched into the world with one simple idea: money that doesn’t need a bank.
What makes Bitcoin special is its scarcity. There will never be more than 21 million Bitcoins. This is written into the code — unchangeable, final, forever. Compare that to the euro or the dollar, which a central bank prints whenever it wants. Bitcoin is deflationary money — the scarcer it is, the more valuable it becomes.
Bitcoin is often compared to gold today. It’s a store of value. It isn’t meant for paying for your coffee (although technically you can), but for preserving and growing the value of your assets.
Ethereum — a platform, not just money
Ethereum (abbreviation: ETH) is a step beyond Bitcoin. It’s a cryptocurrency, but at the same time a platform on which developers build applications.
Ethereum’s key innovation is smart contracts. These are automated programs that execute when certain conditions are met — without an intermediary, without the human factor, without the possibility of manipulation.
A simple example: you’re buying an apartment. Normally a notary, a lawyer, a bank, and a real estate agency are all involved — each taking their own fee. With a smart contract, the transfer of ownership would happen automatically once two conditions are met: payment and signature. No intermediaries. No expensive fees.
Most modern crypto projects, NFT platforms, and DeFi protocols are built on Ethereum. It’s the backbone of the crypto ecosystem.
Altcoins — opportunity or trap?
Everything else is an altcoin (alternative coin). Solana, Cardano, XRP, BNB, Polkadot, Avalanche — the list is endless. Some of these projects solve real problems and have a real future. Others were created only so that someone could profit off naive investors.
My advice for beginners: start with Bitcoin and Ethereum. Once you understand how this world works — how to buy, how to store, how to follow the market — then gradually start exploring smaller projects. Never the other way around.
Four Ways to Actually Make Money with Crypto
Now we get to the part you care about most. How do you actually make money?
Method 1: Buy and Hold — The HODL Strategy
HODL is crypto slang for “hold” (it started out as a typo, but the term stuck). The strategy is almost banal in its simplicity: you buy a cryptocurrency and keep it for a long time.
Why does it work? Because despite daily swings, the crypto market grows over the long term. Anyone who bought Bitcoin three, five, or seven years ago and didn’t sell in a panic at the first dips — is significantly richer today.
The power of this strategy increases even more with the DCA (Dollar Cost Averaging) method — spreading out your investments. Instead of investing everything at once, you invest a fixed amount every month — say 50 or 100 euros. No matter what the price is that month.
When the price is high, you buy fewer coins. When the price is low, you buy more coins. Over time, your average purchase price evens out and you’re protected from the risk of bad timing.
This is the strategy I recommend to absolutely every beginner. Set up an automatic monthly purchase on an exchange and… forget about it. Check back in six months. The results will speak for themselves.
Method 2: Staking — While Your Money Sleeps, It Works
There’s a way to earn with crypto where you don’t have to do practically anything. It’s called staking.
Certain cryptocurrencies (Ethereum, Solana, Cardano, and others) need owners to “stake” some of their coins to keep their network secure. Your stakes ensure that transactions on the network are processed safely and correctly. In return, you receive a reward in the form of new coins — that’s your “interest.”
Think of it as a savings account, except the returns are far higher.
How to get started: open the app on an exchange (Binance, Bybit), find the “Earn” or “Staking” section, choose the cryptocurrency you own, and confirm. Your coins immediately start generating passive income. The process takes five minutes.
Method 3: Spot Trading — Buy Low, Sell High
Spot trading means buying a cryptocurrency at the current market price and selling it when the price rises. Simple. But — to get good results you need at least a basic understanding of when the right time is to buy and when to sell.
This is where chart analysis comes in. Don’t panic — it’s not as complicated as it seems. You need two free tools:
TradingView — a free platform where you can see price movements in real time. This is where you set up indicators and read charts.
RSI (Relative Strength Index) — an indicator of relative strength. It tells you whether the market is currently “overheated” (the price is too high and will probably fall) or “oversold” (the price is too low and will probably jump). The RSI works on a scale from 0 to 100:
- RSI above 70 → the market is overheated → be careful when buying
- RSI below 30 → the market is oversold → a possible buying opportunity
Two price levels every trader must understand:
Support: A price level where the price “bounces” upward because buyers simply won’t let it fall any lower. When you see that the price has bounced off the same point three or four times — that’s your support. Buying near support is a smart tactic.
Resistance: A price level where the price repeatedly stalls its climb. Once the price breaks through this barrier to the upside — it’s often a signal for further growth and an opportunity to enter a position.
One crucial mistake beginners make in spot trading: they buy when everyone is talking about crypto and prices are at their peak. Then they sell in a panic when the price drops. That’s a formula for losing money. Experienced traders do exactly the opposite — they buy when there’s fear in the market and sell when there’s greed.
Method 4: Airdrops — Free Crypto for Simple Actions
Airdrop is one of those concepts in the crypto world that sounds too good to be true — but it’s completely real.
When a new crypto project enters the market, it often hands out free tokens to those who tried its platform early, signed up for a list, or completed simple tasks. This is their marketing — instead of paying for ads, they distribute tokens and build a community of loyal early users.
Where’s your opportunity? In being “early.” Try a new platform while it’s in beta. Connect your wallet. Make small test transactions. And then wait.
One of the best-known airdrops in crypto history: the Uniswap platform gave 400 free UNI tokens to everyone who had ever made a transaction on its platform. At that moment, the value of those tokens was — for many people — several thousand dollars. For an action that many had taken purely out of curiosity, because they wanted to see how the platform worked.
An essential warning: Legitimate airdrops never ask for your seed phrase (your wallet’s security words) or your private key. Anyone who asks for them is trying to rob you. No exceptions.
Your First Purchase: The Exact Process in Five Steps
Enough theory. Here is exactly what you do today to go from zero to your first Bitcoin or Ethereum.
Step 1 — Choose an exchange. An exchange is a platform where you buy cryptocurrency with euros. For beginners, I recommend one of these: Binance (the largest in the world, low fees), Coinbase (the simplest interface for absolute beginners).
Step 2 — Sign up. Create an account with an email address and a password. Set up two-factor authentication (2FA) — this is an extra layer of security that protects your account even if someone gets hold of your password. Don’t get started without 2FA.
Step 3 — KYC verification. Before you can buy anything, you need to complete the KYC (Know Your Customer) process — identity verification. You upload a photo of your ID and may also take a selfie. KYC is a legal requirement for all regulated financial platforms. It’s a sign that the exchange is legitimate. Don’t trust an exchange without KYC.
Step 4 — Deposit and purchase. Deposit euros by bank transfer or card. Find “Buy Crypto”, choose Bitcoin or Ethereum, and enter the amount. Start small — 50 or 100 euros. The goal of your first purchase isn’t to make a million. The goal is to understand how the system works.
Step 5 — Wallet. This is where most beginners stop and leave their crypto on the exchange. That’s a mistake. A wallet is your private storage — once you transfer your coins there, they are truly yours. On an exchange, they are technically “with the exchange.”
To start, a hot wallet is a good fit — a phone app such as MetaMask. Once your holdings exceed 500–1,000 euros, invest in a cold wallet (hardware wallet) — a physical device (Ledger, Trezor) that stores your keys offline.
A seed phrase is 12 or 24 words that you receive when you create a wallet. It is your ultimate key. Write it down on paper. Store it in two separate places. Never photograph it, never store it in the cloud, never share it with anyone — not with me, not with exchange support, not with anyone in the world. Whoever has your seed phrase has your money. With no way to recover it.
Two mistakes that can cost you your money
If you want to protect your money, avoid these two common mistakes that most beginners make.
Mistake 1: Buying when everyone is talking about it
When all the media outlets are talking about crypto and prices are at their peaks, it’s often the worst time to buy.
Don’t buy in euphoria.
Opportunities arise when there is fear in the market and prices are lower — not when everyone is rushing to buy.
Mistake 2: Investing money you need
The crypto market can drop fast — even by 20% or 40%.
Don’t invest money you need for basic expenses.
If you’re under pressure, you will almost certainly sell at the wrong moment.
Remember: only invest as much as you can leave untouched for at least 6 to 12 months.
Why I got started with crypto
When I started talking publicly about crypto, I got one question over and over: “Why are you sharing this for free?”
The answer is simple. When I started out, I made too many mistakes because I didn’t have a real mentor. I ran into bad information, scams, and strategies that cost me time and money. Because I didn’t want that for others, I started sharing what actually works.
In my free webinar I show you live, step by step, how the whole system works. You’ll see the actual purchase process and the actual strategies I use myself. Only concrete knowledge for concrete results.
👉 Reserve your free spot at the webinar
The webinar is for absolute beginners. You don’t need to know anything in advance. All you need is internet access and a few minutes of your time.
The most common questions you ask me
“How much money can I start with?” With 20 euros. Seriously. On most exchanges, the minimum purchase is 10–20 euros. I recommend starting with an amount you feel comfortable with — whether that’s 50 or 200 euros. The purpose of your first investment is to understand the system, not to get rich overnight.
“Is crypto safe?” It depends on what you mean by “safe.” Prices fluctuate — that’s a fact and you have to accept it. But the security of your coins is up to you. If you follow the basic security rules (two-factor authentication, a seed phrase on paper, a reliable exchange), the risk is significantly lower than what most people imagine.
“When is the right time to buy?” When there’s fear in the market and nobody wants to hear about crypto — that’s often the best time. But since nobody knows that exact moment in advance, the DCA strategy (regular monthly purchases) is the smartest solution for beginners.
“Which cryptocurrency is best to start with?” Bitcoin and Ethereum. No explanation needed — these are the two oldest, most liquid, and with a long, proven track record. Once you understand the basics, you can gradually start exploring smaller projects.
“How long does it take before I start earning?” It depends on the method. Staking brings you returns right after setup. Long-term investing requires months of patience. Active trading takes time to learn. There’s no simple answer — but anyone expecting “riches overnight” will be disappointed. Anyone who sees crypto as a long-term strategy will be satisfied.
Conclusion: The Only Mistake You Can’t Afford to Make
There is one mistake that costs more than all the others combined. And that is: not getting started.
Every week you sit and wait for the “right moment” — someone else steps in. Every month you spend wondering whether crypto is “for you” — someone else sets up an automatic purchase and forgets about it. A year from now, that person will be looking at their results, while you’ll still be deliberating.
Cryptocurrencies aren’t rocket science. They’re a new financial system that requires you to learn it — just like you once learned to use online banking. And just like with online banking — once you understand it, you can’t believe you ever lived without it.
Start today. With a small step. With 20, 50, or 100 euros. And if you want to take that step with the right guidance — sign up for my free webinar, where I’ll show you everything live:
