Lazy Person's Guide to Earning Money While Relaxing 2.0: Hold 10 BNB by 2025 and outperform 99% of tokens through Alpha and ecosystem "guarantees".

Author: Frank, PANews

Looking back at 2024, PANews investigated the strategy of " buying 10 BNB and making money passively ." Back then, happiness was simple: just deposit BNB into Launchpool and leave the rest to time.

But in 2025, the market changed. Some people lost their principal in on-chain PvP due to transaction fees, while others bought "VC worthless coins" on the secondary market. In such a volatile market, will the "no grinding, no gambling" BNB lazy man's strategy still work?

The answer is: although the logic has changed, it still works remarkably well. If 2024 was about reaping the benefits of Launchpool's "common pot," then 2025 is about enjoying the benefits of Binance Alpha's "private kitchen." In this article, PANews will review the true ledger of holding 10 BNB this year, combining Binance's official "2025 Annual Report" and exclusive data calculations.

BNB's "lazy person's basic living allowance" remains highly valuable.

First, let's look at the "laziest" strategy. Assuming you completely avoid high-frequency activities like Alpha and simply hold BNB, participating in Binance's official Hodler Airdrop, Launchpool, and Megadrop "traditional" activities, how much guaranteed income can you expect?

According to Binance's latest "2025 Annual Report", in 2025, each BNB held will generate an additional $71.50 in earnings simply by participating in the platform's core activities.

Breaking down the components of this $71.50:

Hodler Airdrop: $43.32.

Launchpool (New Coin Mining): $18.37.

Megadrop (Web3 task): $9.81.

If you hold 10 BNB (with an initial cost of approximately $7,000), this portion of your income will reach $715. Of course, another important source of passive income comes from the appreciation of BNB. The price of BNB rose from $700 at the beginning of the year to a high of over $1,375 at the end of the year. Taking the midpoint of $1,000, the appreciation of 10 BNB would be approximately $3,000.

Based on this calculation, this most conservative strategy would guarantee a minimum return of approximately $3,715, representing a return rate of approximately 53%. In terms of performance, this is a "floor price" that outperforms the vast majority of financial products.

But in 2025, if you only use this "lying flat" approach to "fleece" on Binance, you'll only get the tail end of the fish.

Advanced strategies: Alpha is the key to victory in 2025.

In 2025, the most important feature within the Binance ecosystem will undoubtedly be Binance Alpha. Binance's 2025 Annual Report doesn't detail Binance Alpha's returns because it's a "reward for hard work," with significant differences depending on the amount of capital and individual trading strategies. However, we cannot ignore the fact that the biggest difference between 2025 and 2024 is that in 2025, it's not just about holding tokens, but also about actively participating.

According to PANews statistics, Binance Alpha launched 288 airdrop events throughout 2025. Theoretically, if all airdrops were received, the return would be as high as $16,300. However, in practice, we must consider not only the "theory" but also the "reality."

For a typical user holding 10 BNB, we conducted a real-world calculation after "de-watering" the data:

In terms of opportunity selection, we eliminated high-threshold projects with a score of 240 or higher (which might be missed due to insufficient points), leaving 260 opportunities to participate. After this elimination, the total return was reduced to approximately $15,200.

Furthermore, considering that some airdrops after August will be on a "first-come, first-served" basis, and that users may forget to complete their transactions or be slow to react, we will deduct a 30% miss rate for this phase of the campaign. Ultimately, the revised estimated revenue is approximately $12,600.

Of course, Alpha is a "paid game," and the costs incurred during participation must be considered. Holding 10 BNB grants approximately 2 points daily. To reach the average participation standard of 240 points, users need to earn an additional 14-18 points daily.

This means that approximately $30,000 in trading volume needs to be contributed daily. Based on an average daily wear and tear of 4-8 USDT, the annual trading wear and tear cost is approximately $1,250 (calculated from the end of April when Alpha was launched).

Alpha segment net profit: $12,600 (revenue) - $1,250 (cost) ≈ $11,350.

In comparison, the return from the "basic guarantee" method was $715, while the return from diligently participating in Alpha was $11,350. The latter is more than 15 times the former. Therefore, "self-reliance" is the core money-making secret in Binance's 2025 event.

Three strategies, three lives

We combined official data with Alpha calculations to see how much the initial $7,000 became under three different operations.

Option A: "Lying Flat" Type

Operation: Only hold the stock and only receive rewards from the three core official events; ignore the Alpha.

Net Income: $715 (Cash Flow) + $3000 (Value Added) = $3715

Final assets: $10,715, with an annualized return of approximately 53%.

Option B: The Diligent "Gold-Making" Type

Operation: Get the full official minimum guarantee + spend a few minutes every day maintaining Alpha points.

Net profit: $715 (official) + $11,350 (Alpha) + $3,000 (value-added) = $15,065.

Final assets: $22,065, annualized return: 215%

This strategy tripled the initial investment. It should outperform the vast majority of crypto investors in 2025.

Option C: Compound Interest (Repurchase of Profits)

Action: Based on Plan B, immediately reinvest the approximately $1,000 monthly cash flow earned into BNB.

Returns: Based on the average BNB price in 2025, 10 BNB will become approximately 26.26 BNB by the end of the year. At a price of approximately $900 per BNB at the end of the year, total assets will reach $23,634, representing an annualized return of 237%.

Undoubtedly, this strategy offers the highest return, but it also carries greater risks from price fluctuations. Furthermore, compared to a non-reinvestment approach, it doesn't offer any significant advantages.

Certainty-based "lazy" returns outperform 99% of tokens

Compared to the legendary wealth creation stories of the crypto world, where returns can easily reach hundreds or thousands of times, an annualized return of around 200% seems insignificant, especially considering the daily participation in Alpha trading. However, when considering the overall risk-reward ratio and the market's expected changes in 2025, such returns are actually quite remarkable, outperforming the returns of the vast majority of assets.

PANews compiled statistics on the price changes of 443 mainstream spot trading pairs in 2025. These pairs cover the most mainstream assets in the crypto space, and their average price change in 2025 was -54%. Among them, only 40 tokens achieved positive returns, less than 10%. Only 4 tokens achieved returns of over 200%, less than 1%.

In comparison, rather than gambling on a 1% chance, both BNB's lazy and hard-working strategies appear more advantageous and certain. For users who are good at careful calculation and prefer certain returns, this is undoubtedly a tedious, but reasonable, approach to crypto trading.

Behind this "certainty" lies, in essence, the overwhelming dominance of a platform's sheer size. According to Binance's 2025 Annual Report, over 17 million users participated in Alpha in 2025, earning a total of $782 million in rewards. This astronomical figure once again confirms the fact that Binance remains the undisputed leader in the industry. In 2025, a year of industry reshuffling, while other platforms were still struggling with liquidity, Binance had already reaped and distributed market share with overwhelming data. Whether measured by the depth of user participation or the breadth of reward distribution, Binance firmly maintains its absolute center position in the industry.

For users, in the 2025 market where there is no mutual support and no competition, holding BNB and participating in Alpha, which seems like a boring activity, is not essentially about playing against the market makers' K-lines, but about contributing to the exchange's popularity and taking away the profits by becoming a "shareholder".

It seems that sometimes being "lazy" in the right way is far better than being "diligent" in the wrong way.

Finally, please note again that the above information is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice.