The Smartest Dividend Crypto Play for Your $1,000 in 2025

Forget traditional dividend stocks—crypto's new yield paradigm is rewriting the rules of passive income.

Staking Rewards Beat Traditional Dividends

While old-school investors chase 3-4% dividend yields, crypto staking protocols deliver 8-12% APY without the quarterly wait. Your $1,000 works harder from day one.

Defi Dividends Never Sleep

Traditional markets close at 4 PM. Crypto yield generation runs 24/7—compounding every block, bypassing market hours entirely. Sleep while your position earns.

Smart Contracts Cut Out the Middlemen

No board approvals, no dividend cuts, no corporate politics. Code executes payouts automatically—transparent and unstoppable.

Because let's be honest—watching paint dry might be more exciting than tracking ex-dividend dates. Welcome to the future of yield.

Badger Meter's top-tier sales and dividend growth

Though the company's FLOW measurement and advanced metering infrastructure products don't typically elicit thoughts of massive growth potential, Badger Meter has proved otherwise.

Its sales and free cash Flow (FCF) have grown by 15% and 16% over the last five years, while management has increased the dividend by 14% at the same time.

With most water and sewer utilities in the United States still largely mechanical and outdated, Badger Meter's end-to-end BlueEdge solution aims to bring these utilities into the modern era.

Image source: Getty Images.

Whether it is the company's continuous monitoring, always-on connectivity, or its full suite of software solutions, the products will only become more important over time as regulations tighten and quality standards increase.

In addition to having the support of this decades-long megatrend, Badger Meter has an excellent track record as a serial acquirer. It has scooped up 14 companies since 2010 and is continuously reinforcing its leadership position.

Adding numerous software and technology solutions via these acquisitions, the company's FCF margin has jumped from 6% in 2015 to 18% today as its software-as-a-service (SaaS) sales balloon.

This burgeoning FCF generation is what makes Badger Meter such a promising dividend growth investment for investors.

While its 0.8% dividend yield may not be jaw-dropping, it only uses 25% of the company's FCF to make dividend payments to shareholders. This figure shows there is a lot of room for further dividend growth, especially as Badger Meter's FCF margin continues to trend higher.