As we test the depths of the crypto bear market, the urge to give up on the space grows stronger in many people.

Doing so, however, would be a grave mistake. This is when the space rebuilds from the ashes and when the next bull cycle’s winners are born. 

Instead of obsessing over the bad, we keep looking for gold. Here are some of the nuggets that we’ve found.

Mint Your Web3 ID

Beyond serving as on-chain digital identities, which have many powerful use cases, acquiring human-readable wallet names can unlock significant earning opportunities.

For example, last year, the most popular service of the kind, Ethereum Name Service (ENS), airdropped a minimum of $17,000 worth of its native governance token ENS to users who had minted their own .eth domain through the protocol.

Similar rewards could come to NFT holders of new, less popular on-chain ID providers like Masa and KEY3.

Masa is a standardized identity protocol similar to ENS, only the NFTs representing the on-chain IDs are “soulbound” or non-transferable. Minting “.soul” Masa domains is free and—if you’re quick—might qualify you for an airdrop. 

To mint a Masa soulbound NFT, you’ll first need some testnet ETH. Visit this website, sign up on Alchemy with your email, paste your MetaMask wallet address in the faucet and click on the “Send Me ETH” button.

Now go to the Masa website and click “Get started” to enter the app. Connect your MetaMask wallet, switch your network to Goerli, and click “Create identity.” There, enter the name for your desired .soul domain and mint it. That’s how you will know what to do when the mainnet mint occurs. Keep an eye out for updates from Masa Twitter account about the mainnet mint.

KEY3 hasn’t officially announced an airdrop yet but may do so in the future. To mint a “.dot” KEY3 domain, go to their website, enter your desired domain name in the search bar, and click “Search.” 

If the domain name is available, you can mint it on the Ethereum mainnet by following the simple instructions. Depending on the network congestion, the minting may cost you around $10 in ETH gas fees.

The Clock is Ticking

Speaking of freebies, a very innovative free mint for an NFT project called Prometheans is currently going on. The project was founded by Giancarlo Chaux, a YouTuber and a relatively influential and respected figure in the NFT space.

While the mint is free and the number of items is unlimited, there’s a catch. Namely, the minting process is tied to a 15-minute timer, where every minute that passes unlocks a new rarer NFT minting. However, if someone mints an NFT, the timer resets.

You want the timer to go as low as possible before minting a Promethean NFT (Source: prometheans.xyz).

For example, if the timer drops below the 10-minute mark, you’ll be able to mint the rarest Prometheans character yet. But if someone does it before you, the timer will reset, and you’ll miss your chance. Only five of 16 possible characters have been minted so far, meaning that the time has never dropped below the 10-minute mark before someone minted.

If you’ve got the time and patience, it’s worth competing to mint the rarest Prometheans character possible, as this project has big potential and reputable backers. If you don’t just tip 0.04 when minting to receive perks for future drops while minting a regular NFT.

Moving on, Matchday is an NFT project partnered with FIFPRO that plans to issue a football manager mobile game next year. 

It is giving away a pack of five digital footballer cards for registering on the site. You can get more gratis packs and other prices by inviting friends and following the project on social media. Use the “Collect” tab at the top of the website to try different opportunities. Also, don’t forget to open your packs!

You can collect 15 digital cards to assemble a football team and play Matchday’s mobile game (Source: matchday.com).

You can also make predictions on FIFA World Cup matches to win freebies. Once the cards are minted on the Solana blockchain as NFTs, they will start commanding some market price, and you’ll be able to sell them on a secondary market.

Memes & Lunchboxes

Despite how the market may look right now, there are always nuggets of gold for those that know where to find them.

The Memes Collection is an NFT project founded by 6529—possibly the most prolific and influential NFT collectors in the space. The collection consists of eight editions showcasing artworks inspired by crypto-native memes.

NakamotoFreedom is the most expensive NFT in The Memes by 6529 collection with a last-sale price of 6.9 ETH, a meme number (Source: OpenSea).

On-chain data shows that the collection is being increasingly bought by sophisticated investors and so-called diamond hands, making it a potentially good buy at current prices. The recent price action also supports this, with the collection’s floor price surging by around 40% over the last week.

Humankind Lunchboxes is another promising project for similar reasons. It was founded by Pablo Stanley, the creator of the very successful Robotos NFT collection. An increasing number of diamond hand collectors are also buying this collection. They likely plan to hold them in anticipation of the Humankind NFT launch. 

The Lunchboxes represent mint passes for the Humankind NFT profile picture collection, which will launch soon. Both of these collections will give their holders priority for minting other collections from the same project, including monsters, spirits, and creatures. The upcoming releases could generate significant hype around the Lunchboxes.

Hunting Freebies on Sui

Sui is a new Move-based high-performance blockchain built by Mysten Labs, which spun off from Meta’s blockchain team. It recently launched its testnet, which could yield many opportunities for airdrops.

One of these is BlueMove, an NFT marketplace and launchpad on Sui. Using it on testnet could get you an airdrop in the future.

To qualify for the potential airdrop, download the official Sui wallet from this link, install it, and go to BlueMove’s homepage. There, connect your wallet and request some testnet SUI coins from the faucet by clicking the “SUI Faucet” button in the top right corner. 

Buying free NFTs from the marketplace should be enough to qualify you for potential future airdrops.

Good luck and stay strong.