Complete strategy to make money in cryptocurrencies: from entry to knowing when to sell

In 2026, making money with cryptocurrencies has become an accessible reality for investors of all levels. However, most guides focus on how to buy, neglecting the more critical question: what to sell to secure your profits. The truth is, anyone can enter the crypto market, but only those who understand when and what to sell manage to realize their gains.

With a total global market cap of approximately 3 trillion dollars and over 650 million users participating in digital assets, the crypto ecosystem offers multiple paths to profitability. But it doesn’t matter which strategy you choose if you lack a clear exit plan. This article analyzes from scratch all the ways to generate crypto income, emphasizing exit management and effective profit realization.

The keys to making money: understanding the buy and sell cycle

The lifecycle of any crypto investment has three critical moments: entry, maintenance, and exit. Most analysis focuses on the first two, but it is precisely at the third where you decide if you truly made money or just on paper.

Making money with cryptocurrencies is no different from traditional markets: you can buy a property to sell years later for a profit, or rent it out while its value increases. Something similar happens in crypto, but at digital speed. The difference is understanding that “having a profit” is not the same as “having made money”. Only when you sell your position and recover euros (or your local currency) in your bank account do you have realized gains.

There are two complementary approaches:

• For stable assets: buy Bitcoin or Ethereum with a horizon of 5+ years. The exit is predictable because you wait for the price to reach your long-term target.
• For volatile assets: active management is required. You must identify technical resistance points, market sentiment shifts, or events that catalyze rises to set your exit.

The question you should ask yourself is not “Will it go up?”, but “At what price would I sell?”. Setting this before buying is the difference between a disciplined investor and an impulsive speculator.

Main methods and their exit strategies

To make money with cryptocurrencies, you need to choose a method aligned with your risk tolerance and monitoring capacity. Each has a different exit strategy:

Trading: quick entry and exit

This is the most well-known approach for those seeking short-term gains. You speculate on price movements: buy low, sell high, over periods from minutes to weeks.

What to sell to gain? A good trader sets profit targets before entering. If they buy Bitcoin at €60,000 with a goal to sell at €63,000 (5% profit), they place an automatic sell order at that price. They don’t wait for it to go higher; they take the predefined profit.

Risks: Most traders lose money initially. Extreme volatility can liquidate leveraged positions before the trend reverses.

Exit strategy: Use Stop-Loss to limit losses (sell if it drops 2%) and Take-Profit to secure gains (sell if it rises 5%). Never trade without these limits.

HODLing: patience rewarded

Buy assets with conviction that their value will increase years later. Ignore daily fluctuations. This is the best approach for those without time to watch charts.

What to sell to gain? Set a long-term price target. If you bought Bitcoin at €40,000 two years ago and expect it to reach €150,000 in five years, that’s your exit goal. When it hits, sell part of your holdings (not all). Institutional investors like MicroStrategy diversify exits: sell 10% at new highs, locking in profits while maintaining exposure.

Risks: The psychological factor. When the market drops 40%, panic may tempt you to sell at a loss. Those who held Bitcoin since 2017 made fortunes; those who sold in panic in 2018 missed that opportunity.

Exit strategy: Use inverse Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA). If you accumulated Bitcoin in small monthly doses over years, sell similarly: a small percentage each quarter when the price significantly rises.

Staking: recurring income with discipline

Lock your crypto in a Proof-of-Stake network (Ethereum, Solana, Cardano) to validate transactions. You receive rewards in the same currency.

What to sell to gain? Here, the concept is different. You don’t aim to sell the principal (the staked tokens), but the generated yields. If you stake 32 ETH at 4% annually, you get about 1.28 ETH per year. You can sell those yields to take profit without touching your main position.

Risks: If the token’s price drops more than your interest earnings, your euro balance decreases. Also, slashing risk exists (losing funds if the validator acts incorrectly).

Exit strategy: Establish a profit/risk ratio. If staking a coin yields 8% annually but the coin dropped 30% this year, it might not be worth it. You’d sell the yields but consider moving your main funds to more stable assets.

When to sell your cryptocurrencies? Technical and fundamental signals

Knowing what to sell to make money involves recognizing exit signals. There are two categories:

Technical signals

• Resistance reached: your predefined price target has been hit. Take profits.
• Trend reversal: the upward chart now shows reversal signals (bearish moving average crosses, oscillator divergences). Time to exit.
• Decreasing volume: if a rise occurs with low volume, it’s weak and fragile. Better to sell before a reversal.
• Support broken: if the price falls below an important support level held for months, the trend has changed. Sell to avoid further losses.

Fundamental signals

• Negative regulatory news: announcement of restrictions in your operating jurisdiction. Better to exit than wait for collective panic.
• Team changes: key founder or CTO leaves. Without proven leadership, risk increases.
• Disruptive competition: a superior project emerges that cannibalizes your asset’s traction.
• Market cycle: you understand we’ve moved from panic to extreme euphoria. Experts like Larry Fink (BlackRock) and Paul Tudor Jones recommend selling during euphoria and buying during depression.

Market psychology: selling at the right moment

The biggest enemy of a good exit strategy is your own psychology. Two emotions dominate:

FOMO (Fear of Missing Out)

“If I sell now, the price will keep rising and I’ll regret it.” This keeps you in winning positions that reverse. The solution: set objectives in advance. If you decide to sell at €80,000 and it hits that, sell. Don’t wait to see if it reaches €100,000.

Attachment

You’ve held a coin for years, made money. You feel attached. You wait for the next wave and lose everything. The Winklevoss twins are the opposite case: bought Bitcoin at €120 in 2013 (called crazy), endured 80% drops, and made fortunes. But they had a plan, not emotional attachment.

The market advice is simple: “Selling is as important as buying, and requires the same analysis.” Dedicate as much time to decide when to exit as to when to enter.

Risks and exit management for different investor profiles

Conservative profile

Invests in low-risk assets (staking stablecoins, long-term Bitcoin). Exit is predictable and gradual. Sell small percentages when reaching targets (+20%, +50%, +100%). No need for perfect timing.

Moderate profile

Diversifies between trading and long-term positions. Needs discipline in both. Use stop-losses (to avoid big losses) and take-profits (to secure small, consistent gains). Consistent gains beat erratic ones.

Aggressive profile

Trades with leverage, altcoins, new protocols. Here, what to sell to make money is critical because poor exits wipe out gains quickly. Golden rule: if you gain 100% on a leveraged position, sell at least 50%. Secure profits and limit risk exposure.

Real cases: how they gained (and lost) by not knowing when to sell

The “Dogecoin Millionaire” – Failed exit lesson

A trader bought Dogecoin with all savings at cents. When Elon Musk appeared on Saturday Night Live in 2021, the price soared. His portfolio reached millions of euros. But he didn’t sell, waiting for more. The price plummeted, losing almost everything.

Lesson: realized zero euros. Having money on screen isn’t having money. “Making money with cryptocurrencies” only matters when you convert gains to euros in your bank account.

The Winklevoss twins – Disciplined exit

Invested €11 million in Bitcoin at €120 in 2013. Called crazy. The difference: they had a clear plan (long-term), tolerated 80% drops, and gradually sold at new highs. Not all at once, but in tranches. This allowed them to secure fortunes while maintaining exposure to future growth.

Lesson: discipline in exit separates winners from those who just break even.

Early Uniswap users – Opportunity and exit

In September 2020, Uniswap airdropped 400 UNI tokens to each user. Initially worth about €1,200. Months later, those tokens were worth €16,000.

Those who sold early (when most thought they’d be worth more) secured respectable gains. Those who waited for €100 per token missed the chance when the market corrected.

Lesson: realized gains (even smaller ones) are better than speculative gains that never materialize.

Action plan: from your first investor to securing profits

Here’s the professional step-by-step to make money with cryptocurrencies in a structured way:

1. Define your profit target before buying

Don’t wait for the price to rise. Ask yourself:

• If I buy at €X, at what price will I sell? (target)
• How long do I expect to reach that price?
• If it doesn’t reach in that time, do I sell anyway?

2. Choose a trusted platform with proven security

Use a regulated exchange that publishes monthly proof of reserves. Enable 2FA. A hack or mismanagement can nullify your exit strategy.

3. Diversify as part of your exit plan

Don’t put all your funds into one coin. A typical portfolio might be:

• 60% Bitcoin (most established)
• 20% Ethereum (second most stable)
• 15% Top 10 altcoins (moderate risk)
• 5% Speculative experiments

When selling, start with the most speculative. This ensures profits in high-risk positions before they lose value.

4. Use inverse DCA for gradual exits

Just as you accumulated with small monthly buys, sell the same way. If you accumulated over 3 years, sell over 2-3 years too. This averages your exit price and avoids selling everything at the peak (impossible to predict) or at the bottom.

5. Convert gains to your local currency

“Making money” means the money is in your bank account, not in a crypto wallet. Set a percentage of gains to convert regularly. This breaks emotional attachment and psychological cycles.

6. Reinvest only what you earned, not the principal

If you invested €1,000 and now have €3,000 (profit €2,000), consider selling the profit, reinvesting only €1,000 of that, and keeping €1,000 in cash. Risks are contained this way.

Taxation, security, and the final barrier to realizing gains

Earning money in crypto is one thing; keeping it after taxes is another.

Tax implications

In many European jurisdictions, gains from selling cryptocurrencies are capital gains. If you bought 1 BTC at €60,000 and sold at €80,000, you earned €20,000. That amount is usually taxed between 19% and 28%, depending on your income bracket.

Important: every time you swap Bitcoin for Ethereum (a trade), you’ve technically sold Bitcoin and bought Ethereum. For tax authorities, that creates a taxable gain/loss even if you didn’t convert to euros.

Also, if you hold more than €50,000 in crypto on exchanges or external wallets, you must declare it on Form 721.

Security until the final transaction

Once you’ve converted crypto to euros on the exchange, the threat doesn’t disappear. Hackers target bank accounts after funds are transferred. After selling:

• Transfer funds from the crypto platform to your verified bank account
• Avoid clicking links in suspicious emails promising bonuses or refunds
• Temporarily disable transfer limits if withdrawing large amounts (then re-enable)

Conclusion: making money with cryptocurrencies requires a clear exit plan

The question “How to make money with cryptocurrencies?” has many answers. But all boil down to one truth: the most important question is what to sell to realize your gains.

An expert trader, a patient hodler, a disciplined staker… all share one thing: they know exactly what they will sell, when, and at what price. They don’t wait for the market to give them the perfect moment; they create their own through clear rules.

By 2026, the crypto market is more mature, less volatile thanks to institutional capital, but also more competitive. Buying and waiting is no longer enough. You must understand cycles, market psychology, tokenomics, and, crucially, your exit strategy.

As experts from BlackRock, Fidelity, and VanEck say: blockchain technology is the future of finance. But profits don’t come from believing in the technology—they come from disciplined management of each stage: entry, maintenance, and most importantly, exit.

Remember: only when you’ve sold, converted to your local currency, and seen euros in your bank account, have you truly made money with cryptocurrencies.

⚠️ Important notice: The information provided is educational and based on market analysis. It does not constitute financial advice. Cryptocurrencies are highly volatile and speculative assets. Consult a professional advisor before making investment decisions. Losses can exceed your initial investment.