What are some ways to identify and invest in upcoming coins before they explode in value?

While I understand that investing in cryptocurrency isn't a guaranteed way to get rich quickly, there are still plenty of stories about people who have made a lot of money from coins that weren't initially taken seriously, such as Dogecoin. For example, Solana was worth just $0.51 on May 10th, 2020, but reached an astonishing $260.00 on November 5th, 2021. Similarly, SAND was less than $0.01 at the end of 2020, but had climbed to $7.43 by November 24th, 2021. Some investors have made thousands or even millions of dollars (in a matter of months) from just a small initial investment.

I know it's impossible to predict which coins will succeed, but it still seems like a better gamble than the lottery. At least with cryptocurrency, you can hold onto your investment indefinitely and there's always a chance it will skyrocket in the future (unlike lottery tickets which expire right after they draw the numbers).

Even Bitcoin started out worth just fractions of a penny and was initially dismissed as a scam or fad, but is now worth over $22,000 ($22,356.08 at this moment to be exact) and reached a high of $64,899 on April 13th, 2021. I'm not interested in (or willing to) dump thousands of dollars into unproven coins, but I am curious about how to find and evaluate these potential gems, as well as how to actually buy and hold them. I've only used Coinbase so far, and they don't allow trading of many new coins that still have a lot of 0s left to fall off.

I already have a portfolio of long-term holdings (such as ADA, ALGO, MATIC, XLM, HBAR, and even some SHIBA and DOGE), but I'm looking for opportunities that are just starting out that still have massive potential gains. I'm not sure how to go about finding them (or determining their potential success, whether based off of short-term hype or long-term projects) and I don't even know where or how to buy coins that are not available on Coinbase (or other centralized exchanges). For example, I couldn't buy BRISE (Bitgert) on Binance or Bitmart because they're not allowed to sell it in mg state (thanks for protecting me “Big Brother”/s).

I refuse to solely be a passive investor and let life pass me by. Surely, not all of these "big winners" are PURELY a game of blind luck. Right? But, even if they are, I’m interested in throwing a few dollars in on some coins, to give my own luck a shot.

Can anyone offer any advice or insights on how to identify promising coins and where to actually purchase (and store) them?