Top Crypto Referral Bonuses: Earn $100+ in free crypto (Updated 2024)

It’s 2034. Bitcoin is worth $1 million and you wish you bought just a tiny bit back in 2024, when you thought it was too high.

Snap back to the present. You now have a chance to dip your feet into crypto. You search around the web for reviews, maybe stumbling upon why skeptics miss the Bitcoin story or how to buy cryptocurrency. If you’re a deal hunter like me, you’d ask yourself: Why not get a nice little bonus for dipping my feet into the crypto world?

And here you are. There are two benefits of opening up accounts at crypto exchanges:

1. Crypto exchanges have sign up bonuses: you can easily get $10 or more in free Bitcoin just for signing up.
2. Multiple accounts help increase liquidity and reduce risk: if there’s a crypto available on one exchange and not another, you don’t want to wait til the last minute to open up a separate crypto account.

Don’t mind opening up a bunch of accounts? Then you’re in luck—there’s potentially hundreds of dollars in free crypto bonuses and promotions. I’ve surfaced up the best ones here, along with links to each program’s referral terms.

Read first—don’t miss this crucial step to get your bonuses

A lot of these referral programs are “quid pro quo,” meaning you have to complete some sort of activity to get your bonus. Usually this means you have to deposit some amount of money into the platform, and maybe even make your first trade to be considered an active user, in order to receive the bonus.

Yes, you still get free money at the end—but you need to put in money to make money :)

You can double dip on sign up bonuses:
Sign up for cash back rewards programs like Rakuten and Honey before you sign up for crypto exchanges. Not only do you get a free sign up bonus up to $30 for using my link, but you can stack this by activating Rakuten while you sign up for crypto exchanges to get extra cash back.

Just remember the same quid pro quo rule applies: to get the bonus from Rakuten, you need to spend the equivalent amount first. Here’s an example of someone “pending” who signed up using my link, but hasn’t spent money yet. Meaning they won’t get the bonus.

Here’s the ideal flow to maximize your sign up bonuses:

1. Sign up for Rakuten using my referral link
2. Go shopping with Rakuten installed in your browser. Spend the $30 or $40 (whatever is the current promotion) in order to get your bonus.
3. Sign up for crypto exchanges with bonuses with the Rakuten offer activated (refer to image below)
4. Then make sure you meet that exchange’s sign up bonus conditions. For example, maybe you have to deposit a certain amount of $ or make at least 1 trade.
5. Wait for the cash!

Here’s an example with current eToro offer: You can get $40 Rakuten sign up bonus + $40 cash back offer using Rakuten when signing up for eToro + $30 directly from eToro for signing up.

That’s $110 in free bonuses just for one exchange!

Top Crypto Referral Bonuses

I’ll start with the first 5 “pure play” crypto exchanges that have outlasted all the FTX and Luna fiascos. Yes, there is risk in crypto. But also, consider. You’ll notice that the end of the list includes more recognizable investing platforms, which have also started to roll out easy options to buy crypto. This is not a mistake.

Gemini sign up bonus: $10 in BTC

Top U.S. based exchange renowned for it’s stability, security and fast cash transfers/withdrawals. I basically see Gemini as twins (heh) with Coinbase.

• Referral program: buys or sell $100+ worth of crypto within 30 days of creating your account.

eToro sign up bonus: $30 in cash + extra using Rakuten

eToro’s special sauce: it’s “CopyTrader” feature allows you to copy the portfolio of top performing investors in crypto and stocks. eToro once started as crypto-only trading, but not it offers stock trading in the app as well.

Update: for a limited time, you can more than double your bonus with an extra $40 cash back using Rakuten.

• eToro referral program details: Current promo is we both get $30 if you sign up with my referral link.

Here’s how to triple stack this bonus:

• $30: open a new Rakuten account with my referral link
• $30: Navigate to eToro with my referral link. While you’re on the site, activate Rakuten’s $40 cash back promo
• $40: Complete the sign up process

In total, you should get $100 in bonus cash just for depositing $100 into eToro and buying some stocks / cryptos.

Robinhood sign up bonus: free stock and more

Robinhood now offers fee-free crypto trading alongside fee-free stock trading. You can seamlessly sell stocks for dollars, and use those funds to buy crypto (Ethereum and Bitcoin for now). I’ve been using RH since 2015 without a hitch (no I didn’t buy GME) saving hundreds in transaction fees.

Now, Robinhood has allowed crypto transfers outside of its platform, so you can move the likes of BTC and ETH to other wallets. This is a huge win that I’ve been waiting for.

• Referral program: Get 1 free stock for signing up. You must claim your stock witihn 60 days in the app.You can make up to $500 worth of stocks only per year.

M1 Finance sign up bonus: $75-$100 sign up bonus

M1 Finance is the latest brokerage to introduce crypto buys, and I’m happy about it. I already use M1 Finance on a weekly basis (see my review) because it helps me easily construct my investments into “pies.” I’ve written about this at length in my M1 Finance review.

Now, M1 Crypto is bringing the same capability so you can pull off something like this: “For every $500 I transfer in, allocate 50% to stocks, 25% to Bitcoin and 25% to Ethereum.” Your future transfers will keep that allocation.

The site says: “any M1 client with a funded Invest Account can open a Crypto Account for free.” To get your bonus, open up a M1 Finance brokerage account, fund it, then open another M1 Crypto account. Just opening an M1 Crypto account does not guarantee you get the referral bonus.

• Referral program: Open an account with my referral link. After funding your account, we could both earn a $75 investing bonus, if eligible.

Coinbase referral bonus: $0 in trading fees

Why Coinbase: the easiest to use on-ramp into cryptocurrency. Best-in-class user interface and super secure. No direct cash back bonus unless you use Rakuten to get up to $12 back. But you do get $0 in trading fees for signing up with my link.

• Referral program details: we’ll both get discounted fees for 30 days when they sign up and trade. Spread still applies. Maximum discount of $5 per trade.

Binance.us: $10 USD

Binance is one of the most liquid exchanges with billions in proven assets (less risk of bank run). Like the URL implies, this is the U.S. version of the Binance site available to American investors, not Binance.com.

• Referral program: $10 bonus when you complete $100 or more in buys and/or trades within 30 days of completing account verification. Make sure my code 54440024 is applied during your sign up.

Crypto.com sign up bonus: at least $25

Crypto exchange with multiple features like a Bitcoin cash back debit card. They do offer high crypto interest accounts. But like many of its other bonuses, the platform requires CRO, Crypto.com’s native token to get the best benefits. It’s kinda gimmicky and annoying, but might be worth the trouble if you’re a crypto-maximizer.

• Referral program: Get $10-50 worth of CRO tokens. Like I mentioned it’s worth quite a bit of effort / requires you to really buy into the native token. Stake at least 1000 CRO on the Crypto.com Exchange.

Public sign up bonus: stock worth $1-$300

Neat Robinhood competitor that has a social layer (community posts & education) on top. Great way to trade and learn at the same time

• Referral program: Use my referral code when prompted during the account opening process. After getting approved for a brokerage account, successfully deposits at least $20 into their account. Then you may claim a reward worth anywhere from $1 up to $300 into your account¹ based on the free stock (or slice of a stock) you get.

Cash App sign up bonus: $5 cash

Square’s Cash App is not just a P2P payments app, but also allows you to buy Bitcoin and stocks. You can take your $5 referral and buy like, one millionth of a Bitcoin.

• Referral program: $5 in cash when you sign up as a new user. Requires no work on your part except for opening a new account. Straight n simple, just like the Cash app.

Webull sign up bonus: get up to 5 free stocks when you open up an account

Webull is an all in one stock & crypto trading exchange. The UX is OK – the app tries to do a little too much and sometimes feels like a casino. On the other hand, there are tons of features, including paper trading.

Get up 2-4 stocks for free depending on the promotion. Similar to Robinhood but a bit richer.

• Referral program details: New users open a brokerage account and makes an initial deposit of at least $100 within 30 days of signing up. Pretty low bar!

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Defunct Crypto Exchanges Programs—AVOID!

BlockFi, Celsius Network, Voyager Digital and now FTX used to viable crypto platforms.

Many of them they were overexposed to the Luna fiasco and Three Arrows Capital insolvency; some like FTX committed fraud.

As of this writing, I still have funds locked up Celsius and Voyager.

This underscores the importance of a multi-account strategy. Never put all your dollars in one platform, in case something happens.

In crypto, if you want to guarantee access to your own funds, also consider storing your crypto on a hardware wallet like Ledger, which is the one I use.

Get started

Getting started with some free crypto helps expand the surface area of your knowledge by getting some skin in the game.

One day, you’ll look back on your million dollar plus crypto account, and think back fondly on this post.

Probably not, but either way—I appreciate you for patronizing my writing via affiliate links. You win, I win, we wiiin!

Note: the Cryptosheet download will include these, and several other more arcane crypto exchanges & resources.