Two Paths, One Outcome: How Modern Lotteries Change Lives

In Shanghai, ¥35,000 is a big deal for a father raising kids. It can pay for tutoring in a city where competition starts young. It can cover enrichment classes that open doors. It’s the kind of money you budget carefully on an engineer’s salary, weighing which opportunities you can afford and which you can’t.

For Runjiang Guo, a 35-year-old electrical engineer, things changed in November. The education fund he’d been slowly building for his kids suddenly grew by ¥35,000. It didn’t come from extra work or a raise. It came from joining a system meant to give people like him a fair shot, CoinTerminal’s free monthly lottery, designed to give back to the community that makes the platform possible.

In Quetta, Pakistan, opportunities don’t always announce themselves. Zain Anwari understands this. At 26, he’s built a steady barber business through skill and hard work, cutting hair in a city where you have to create your own luck.

For years, he heard clients talk about Bitcoin while he worked. Curious, he started learning on his own at home. He took his time, reading articles after work and watching videos. Over the years, he learned about a world that felt far from his barbershop but was becoming more important.

By December, Anwari made his first allocation on CoinTerminal: 50,000 USDT into Helios Blockchain, a decision shaped by years of learning, not impulse. That same month, he won the lottery.

Two people. Two countries. Two completely different paths into crypto. One platform that gave them both life-changing opportunities.

A Father’s Education Fund and a Barber’s Breakthrough: Why These Stories Matter

Runjiang Guo (Credit: CoinTerminal)

This is what real access looks like when barriers are taken away.

Guo didn’t win because he’s an engineer with technical knowledge. He won because he participated. His approach was methodical, allocating across multiple projects that interested him: 1,396 USDT here, 2,500 USDT there, plus exploring different projects like AdixAI, Artery Chain, Blink Galaxy Blockchain, Finsteco, and Glint Analytics. Steady involvement, not speculation.

Anwari didn’t win because he had connections or a lot of money. He had the same eligibility as anyone else. What Anwari did right was to invest time in self-directed learning that helped him understand what he was participating in. Then, with one carefully considered allocation, his investment paid off.

Neither expected to win. Both participated because they found projects worth exploring. The system didn’t care about their job titles, locations, or portfolio sizes. All that mattered was that they participated.

How CoinTerminal’s Free Lottery Works

The mechanics are deliberately simple. When you contribute $250 or more to any CoinTerminal sale, you’re automatically entered into that month’s lottery. There are no additional steps, tickets to buy, entry fees, or optimization strategies.

Even if you choose to refund your presale allocation, you stay eligible. What matters is that you participated, not whether you held your position. Winners are selected using Chainlink VRF, a verifiable random number generation protocol that anyone can verify on-chain.

Each month, prizes total up to $5,000.This is CoinTerminal’s way of giving back to the community. Over 650,000 users are now part of this community, joining in because the system removes the usual barriers that keep most people out.

Breaking Industry Barriers

CoinTerminal founder Hatu Sheikh has been clear from the start: “CoinTerminal is about breaking barriers, not building them.”

The free monthly lottery is an extension of how the platform operates. There are no token staking requirements, membership tiers, or wealth gates. Just participation.

Crypto’s early promise was about access, about financial systems that didn’t require permission from gatekeepers. But as the industry grew, new barriers appeared. Platforms required you to hold native tokens. They implemented staking tiers, created VIP structures, and access became gated again, just with different gatekeepers.

CoinTerminal’s lottery does the opposite. It asks, what if we rewarded people just for showing up and taking part? What if an engineer in Shanghai, a barber in Quetta, and a venture capitalist in Silicon Valley all had the same chance?

That’s precisely what happened in November and December. Two people from very different backgrounds got the same fair chance, chosen by a random process that treated them equally.

What Winning Means

For Guo, ¥35,000 means his children’s educational opportunities expand. In Shanghai’s competitive environment, that money shifts what’s possible. The tutoring that was out of reach before becomes available. The enrichment programs that build foundations for future success become accessible.

For Anwari, the win represents something different but equally significant. Years of self-teaching between haircuts, learning about a space that felt distant from his daily work, led to a tangible opportunity. The barber who taught himself crypto by listening and learning proved that commitment and careful participation matter more than credentials.

These aren’t lottery stories about sudden wealth. They’re stories about access working the way it should. They’re about platforms giving back to the communities that make them possible.

Changing People’s Lives

The next monthly draw is coming up. The next winner could be anyone, working any job, who found their own way into crypto.

The rules are the same as they were for Guo and Anwari: just take part in a CoinTerminal token sale. That’s all. Pick a project you like, invest what feels right for you, and you’re automatically entered.

The system takes care of everything else. Chainlink VRF picks winners in a way anyone can check. Where you live, what you do, or how much you invest doesn’t matter. What matters is that you participate.

CoinTerminal created this because access should be real. Removing barriers is built into the system. An engineer, a barber, and a venture capitalist should all have the same chance if they participate and do so thoughtfully.

Guo’s children now have educational opportunities they didn’t have before. Anwari showed that years of self-learning can pay off. Both won through a system built to treat everyone fairly.

The next story could be yours.

Visit CoinTerminal to see upcoming launches. Participate in a sale. Enter the next monthly draw. No additional steps required.