Top Crypto Referral Bonuses: Earn $100+ in free crypto (Updated for 2023)

It’s 2033. Bitcoin is worth $1 million and you wish you bought just a tiny bit back in 2023, 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.

Note: should you choose to use my friend referral links (thank you), you’ll have to use the direct links to sign up. If you click around around each page or leave, you might lose the referral bonus even after returning to the site. And that makes both of us sad.

Top 10 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.

Coinbase referral bonus: $10 in BTC

Why it’s good: the easiest to use on-ramp into cryptocurrency. Best-in-class user interface and super secure. Coinbase Earn allows you to earn crypto just for learning about it.

• Referral program details: initiates a buy or sell of $100 USD or more (or 100 USD equivalent of your domestic currency) within 180 days of opening his or her account, you both will receive a 10 USD (or 10 USD equivalent of your domestic currency) referral bonus when the order completes.

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.

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.

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: $10 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 and deposits your first $100 ($500 for an IRA) within 30 calendar days of account opening to get your bonus.

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!

eToro sign up bonus: $50 in cash

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.

• eToro referral program details: Get $50 when you refer a friend, and your friend gets $50.

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.