The Crypto Passive Income Math Nobody Shows You (I Built a Free Calculator to Prove It)

To earn $1,000 per month staking ETH you need $343,000. Here is the number that actually changes the math.

Let me show you a number that changed how I think about crypto passive income.

To earn $1,000 per month from staking ETH at current rates, you need $343,000 in capital.

Read that again. Three hundred and forty-three thousand dollars. To earn one thousand dollars a month.

Most crypto passive income content skips this calculation entirely. They tell you staking yields 3.5% APY and leave you to do the math yourself. So I built a free calculator that does the math for you — and compares four methods side by side so you can see exactly why the strategy you choose matters more than almost anything else.

The Four Methods and What They Actually Pay

ETH Staking — 3.5% APY

The gold standard for safety. Your ETH is secured by your own wallet. No counterparty risk. The Ethereum network has been running since 2015 and staking since 2022. It is as close to risk-free crypto yield as exists.

The problem: 3.5% APY on $10,000 is $350 per year. $29 per month. To generate meaningful income from staking you need capital that most retail investors simply do not have.

DeFi Lending — 6% APY

Lending protocols like Aave and Compound pay higher rates because they take on borrower risk. Your USDC or USDT earns approximately 5–8% APY depending on market conditions. Better than staking. Still requires $200,000 to generate $1,000 per month.

Smart contract risk applies here. Aave has been secure since 2020 but not every protocol will be — and the collapses that have happened in DeFi were often sudden and total.

Retail Copy Trading — ~25% average

Copy trading platforms let you mirror the trades of other users. At a generous 25% average annual return, you need $48,000 to generate $1,000 per month. The catch: you are copying retail traders whose track records rarely exceed 90 days.

Institutional AI Copy Trading — 163% avg annual

This is where the math becomes genuinely different.

Endotech’s BTC Alpha strategy has averaged 163% annual returns on fixed capital across 8 years of live trading. 83% trade accuracy. 14% maximum drawdown. Zero losing years. Built by Dr. Anna Becker — Technion PhD, former AXA and BNP Paribas researcher.

A 50% performance fee applies — so your net return is approximately half the gross figure. On a 163% gross year that is still around 81% net — and you need approximately $7,362 in capital to generate $1,000 per month net after fees.

$7,362 versus $343,000. Same monthly income target. Completely different capital requirement.

The Calculator I Built

I wanted to see all four methods side by side with real numbers — not APY percentages but actual dollar outcomes based on my specific capital and time horizon. I also wanted the reverse: tell me my income target and show me how much capital each method requires.

So I built it: Crypto Passive Income Calculator — free, no email required.

It does four things. Forward mode — enter your capital, pick a time horizon, see all four methods update simultaneously. Goal mode — enter a target monthly income and see exactly how much capital each method requires. Year-by-year breakdown table. And a growth chart where the visual divergence between methods over time is frankly shocking to see.

The Honest Caveats

I am not going to pretend Endotech is risk-free. Losing months happen — 10 out of 103 historically. The 163% is gross before the 50% performance fee. The Bit1 Exchange is newer than Binance. Cryptocurrency markets are inherently volatile and past performance never guarantees future results.

What the calculator does is show you the structural difference between methods so you can make an informed decision with your own risk tolerance and capital in mind. The math is what it is. What you do with it is yours to decide.

Run the numbers for yourself: https://limitlessibportal.io/crypto-passive-income-calculator

For a full breakdown of all passive crypto income methods: Passive Crypto Income Without Trading 2026

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency trading carries substantial risk of loss. Past performance does not guarantee future results. Always conduct your own due diligence.

The Crypto Passive Income Math Nobody Shows You (I Built a Free Calculator to Prove It) was originally published in Coinmonks on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.