As crypto payments have taken over different markets, they have also become extremely popular in the gambling industry. Since cryptocurrencies offer various advantages that fiat currencies cannot provide, many virtual casinos and sportsbooks started accepting deposits and withdrawals via different cryptocurrencies. As some players and punters have restricted access to typical casino payment solutions, cryptocurrencies quickly become a great alternative for gambling-related transactions. Cryptocurrencies have taken over numerous sectors, with gambling also being one of the prominent markets that have started implementing crypto payments. When comparing the number of cryptocurrency initial coin offering (ICO) projects for 2020 by markets, we will see that the casino and gambling sector has an ICO of 167%, ranking lower than industries like business services, investments, smart contacts, banking, media, and others. Despite that, more online casinos and sportsbooks have started seeing the benefits of utilizing cryptocurrency payments. Since cryptocurrencies have become even more widely accepted by gaming and betting websites, there are predictions that crypto payments will be further integrated into the global gambling market. While Bitcoin and Ethereum are the two most commonly accepted cryptocurrencies accepted by interactive casinos and sportsbooks, other cryptocurrencies have also started entering the gambling sector. Some of the alternatives also include gambling cryptocurrencies that were created by casinos and sportsbooks for the sole purpose of using them for online casino and betting transactions. With the emergence of more crypto casinos, more players find this payment method very convenient for their deposits and withdrawals. Utilizing cryptocurrencies for online gambling-related payments has plenty of advantages for both operators and their members. This is why the number of online casinos and sportsbooks that support crypto payments is constantly increasing, allowing their patrons to easily handle their deposits and withdrawals. If you are wondering whether to resort to crypto payments when betting online, you can take a look at the benefits this method provides. One of the biggest reasons why many prefer to handle their online casino and sportsbook payments via cryptocurrencies is the fact that they ensure very secure transactions. If you resort to crypto payments, then they will be carried out via blockchain technology. It enables the easy tracking of the transactions but it is extremely difficult to manipulate them. This makes payments via cryptocurrencies very secure and trustworthy. Whenever you are using cryptocurrencies to fund your casino/sportsbook account or withdraw your winnings, your payments will not be linked in any way to your bank account. This allows you to stay anonymous while making payments at online casinos or betting sites, adding a layer of security to your transactions and avoiding any potential issue with your credit score. Players who enjoy betting online are constantly looking for payment methods that are both secure and fast enough. When we talk about the speed of transactions, cryptocurrencies rank as one of the methods that allow extremely fast deposits and withdrawals online. In addition to the speed of transactions, cryptocurrencies also boast a great simplicity of payments. Players who own a cryptocurrency can easily exchange or purchase cryptocurrencies by using a regular fiat currency. Once the cryptocurrency is available in one’s crypto wallet, one can initiate fast and secure deposits and withdrawals at any online casino/sportsbook that supports crypto payments. Often, players who decide to play at online casinos using their cryptocurrencies have the chance to enjoy some exclusive perks. There are quite a few casino operators that offer special incentives that are available only to users who use cryptocurrencies for their casino payments. Often, crypto-friendly casinos tend to offer generous Welcome Bonuses and other reload bonuses that players can enjoy after topping up their accounts via cryptocurrencies. In addition to bountiful promotions, online casinos may also offer exclusive perks to their loyal customers. As players fund their accounts via cryptocurrencies and start betting on casino games, they can earn loyalty points that can, later on, be exchanged for various prizes. Some of these specifically developed cryptocurrencies can be used for casino and betting-related payments. Meanwhile, others utilise blockchain technology to offer platforms that enable decentralised gambling. Gambling cryptocurrencies also tend to have a wide range of other roles such as ensuring that results of casino games are free of any bias, serving as proof of loyalty towards a casino, or providing the holders of the specific cryptocurrency with a percentage of the casino’s profit. The gambling industry is constantly evolving, with estimates showing that it is expected to surpass $565 billion by 2022. Meanwhile, the cryptocurrency sector has a great potential of taking over a huge amount of the gambling market in the upcoming years. At the moment of writing this report, the value of the gambling cryptocurrency sector is estimated to be $805.55 million. Currently, the gambling cryptocurrency with the highest value is PlayChip, with a market cap of $219,447,317. You can often find gaming and betting websites supporting a wide range of cryptocurrencies, with available options often coinciding with the current most traded cryptocurrencies. Many were quick to decide that 2021 was the year of Bitcoin as it reached a record high in April of this year. Despite that, just as it experienced a huge increase, Bitcoin had a steep fall. If we take a look at the most traded cryptocurrencies for July 2021, we will notice that it was Tether that had the biggest 24-hour trading volume of over $42 billion. Along with Bitcoin, Tether became the second crypto coin to reach a volume of over $100 billion. Meanwhile, the two cryptocurrencies were followed by Ethereum with half of that volume. As more online casinos and sportsbooks started accepting crypto payments, you could often see both Ethereum and Tether among the supported cryptocurrencies. In addition to that, you could also easily find gaming and betting websites that accept payments via a wide range of other popular cryptocurrencies. It is no surprise that every crypto-friendly online casino or sportsbook accepts payments via Bitcoin. In fact, it is commonly the only accepted cryptocurrency or at least it was for a long time. As Bitcoin was the first cryptocurrency launched in 2009, it dominates over the rest of the cryptocurrencies that followed its example. By the time of writing this report, the total market capitalization of Bitcoin is 46.02%. This is a significant difference with the following Ethereum, which had a total market cap of 17.07%. Meanwhile, cryptocurrencies like Tether, Binance Coin, and Cardano had even a bigger gap with Bitcoin, with market cap percentages of respectively 4.79%, 3.95%, and 2.92%. As soon as online casinos started accepting payments via Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency quickly became a preferred payment solution by a large number of players. There are several reasons why online players prefer this payment alternative to typical banking solutions. The speed and simplicity of payments as well as the security of transactions are enough to make Bitcoin one of the popular solutions that many casino/sportsbook members prefer using. When we take a look at the total market cap mentioned above, we will notice that Ethereum has the second highest market cap for July 2021. Since it is one of the most traded cryptocurrencies, it has also become popular in the casino and gambling industry. This is why plenty of online casinos and sportsbooks allow their customers to use Ethereum for their deposits and withdrawals. Just like Bitcoin, Ethereum is preferred by many players as it allows fast, secure, and easy payments. Blockchain technology reduces the speed of processing transactions and also enables players to stay anonymous when playing online. This makes Ethereum a very convenient option for numerous online casino/sportsbooks members. Ethereum is different from other cryptocurrencies since it operates on a smart contracts platform. These smart contracts organize an economic system that can be used for multiple purposes, including gambling-related payments. Litecoin is yet another cryptocurrency that is often supported by crypto-friendly casinos and sportsbooks. Litecoin was created as an altcoin to Bitcoin that was supposed to be better at processing smaller transactions. Nowadays, Litecoin is one of the most traded cryptocurrencies and can often be used for deposits and withdrawals at online casinos/sportsbooks. While Litecoin is also based on a blockchain network, it is somewhat different from Bitcoin. This cryptocurrency runs thanks to a hashing algorithm, while Bitcoin employs a longstanding SHA-256 algorithm. While it takes 10 minutes for Bitcoin to process a block, Litecoin takes only 2.5 minutes. Since the Litecoin blockchain can process blocks faster, it also generates blocks more frequently, allowing it to process more transactions than Bitcoin. As more people own the cryptocurrency, it has also become extremely popular among online casino and sportsbook fans. Since it also provides fast, secure, and easy payments, it is extremely popular at crypto-friendly gaming and betting websites. Dogecoin was one of the cryptocurrencies with the biggest price jump in 2021. What started as a meme coin has suddenly become one of the most popular cryptocurrencies and casino and sports betting operators noticed that. There is a large number of online casinos and sportsbooks that support payments via Dogecoin, allowing fast, secure, and easy transactions. At the beginning of the year, Dogecoin’s value was estimated to be $0.009 and in February, just one month later, it reached $0.08. This was after a series of tweets by Elon Musk and Snoop Dogg encouraged a wave of interest in the crypto coin. By May, the value of the cryptocurrency reached its peak at $0.7, representing a huge increase of 2,100%. The enormous surge of Dogecoin’s value made the meme coin the fifth most traded cryptocurrency and the top eight crypto coin by a total market cap in June. Due to its large popularity, it comes as no surprise that Dogecoin is one of the commonly used cryptocurrencies in online casinos and sportsbooks. If you decide to use this currency for your online gambling, you will be able to remain anonymous and handle your payments in an extremely secure and hassle-free way. Ripple is a virtual currency that can also be utilised at many online casinos and sportsbooks that support crypto payments. Although similar to Bitcoin, Ripple is known for processing payments in cryptocurrencies, reward programs, fiat currencies, and valuable items. Like the other cryptocurrencies we have covered, Ripple offers virtual players a very secure and easy way to handle their payments. In the meantime, as it allows users to use the protocol in their own system, allowing instant processing of transactions. While many refer to the cryptocurrency as Ripple due to the name of the company that created it (Ripple Labs), its name is actually XRP. It is one of the top traded cryptocurrencies, with a market cap of $28.12 billion at the time of writing this report. Despite its market share, however, Ripple is accepted at fewer online casinos compared to other cryptocurrencies. One of the reasons for that may be its controversial history, especially after the US Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) asked for an investigation on Ripple. This being said, there are still quite a few XRP casinos that allow their members to easily handle their payments via the cryptocurrency. Since Tether is linked to the US Dollars, it is a stable cryptocurrency that boasts a high market cap and daily volume. This makes it one of the cryptocurrencies that are often used by members of crypto-friendly online casinos and sportsbooks. Ever since it was launched in 2014, Tether has become one of the top cryptocurrencies worldwide and is currently one of the most commonly used crypto coins in online casinos and sportsbooks. Many believe that Tether is one of the best alternatives to Bitcoin as it is one of the most stable cryptocurrencies, with very rare price fluctuations. This comes in handy when players wish to convert their crypto winnings into a fiat currency. Tether also allows fast and secure transactions that allow players to stay anonymous while gambling online. Being one of the biggest cryptocurrencies at the moment, Tether can be easily used in numerous crypto-friendly gaming and betting websites. Cryptocurrency is one of the newest sectors in the gambling market and is still taking a pretty small share. This being said, as there are predictions for the gambling scene to continue to grow, the expectations for crypto gambling are also high. Based on research on online search demand, the casino sector was the most searched one (53.7%), followed by sports betting (44.3%), and esports betting (2%). The same type of research on online gambling searches revealed that about 4% of searches are related to crypto gambling. This may not seem like a huge percentage but it shows that the interest in crypto gambling is steadily increasing. Not only is the crypto gambling sector constantly growing but there are also predictions to continue evolving and have an even bigger impact on online gambling in the upcoming years. According to virtual casinos, players who have switched to cryptocurrencies from fiat currencies are rarely going back. It is expected that crypto payments will take over a huge portion of future online gambling transactions. Some economic experts even believe that cryptocurrencies will become the most commonly used method for all online purchases. In the last two years, cryptocurrencies have grown immensely, with more people contributing to the price fluctuation by investing in cryptocurrencies. There are many factors indicating that the crypto gambling sector will continue to expand in the upcoming years. One such example is the patent IGT has received for transferring crypto coins from virtual wallets to the slot machines the company is manufacturing. That way, players can easily gamble via cryptocurrencies both online and offline. The fact that more online casinos and sportsbooks are launching their own gambling cryptocurrencies is also indicative of crypto payments further being implemented in virtual gambling. This being said, only time will show whether crypto payments will take over other payment solutions currently used in the gambling industry. Since crypto transactions are not that easy to track, most regulated casino operators are still on the fence about accepting cryptocurrencies. Despite that, if crypto payments become a popular method for different types of online purchases, they might also be further integrated into the global online casino and sports betting scene. *Numbers expressed in US dollars *volume expressed in billion US dollars *Numbers expressed in million US dollars
In the last few years, cryptocurrencies have become an extremely popular payment solution, with millions of people turning to this new way of paying for purchases and services. From something that almost nobody believed in to becoming one of the most popular unconventional payment methods, cryptocurrencies have gone through immense changes. After the success of Bitcoin, nowadays, there are various cryptocurrencies that many people invest in.Reasons Why Players Prefer Betting with Cryptocurrencies
Cryptocurrencies Offer Safe Transactions
Transactions are Processed in a Fast and Hassle-Free Way
Many Crypto Casinos Reward Players for Their Loyalty
Gambling Cryptocurrencies
The easiest way to describe a gambling cryptocurrency is as a cryptocurrency that was specifically designed to serve online players and bettors as a means of easy gambling-related payments. Depending on the type of gambling purpose that they serve, there are different types of gambling cryptocurrencies. Cryptocurrencies Most Commonly Used for Online Gambling
As Bitcoin was the cryptocurrency that all started with, it is only natural that it is the most commonly accepted cryptocurrency at online casinos and sportsbooks. In fact, it is so popular that there are dedicated Bitcoin virtual casinos and Bitcoin casino games. This being said, other cryptocurrencies are also gaining quite the popularity in the crypto world and casino operators have noticed that.Bitcoin
Ethereum
Litecoin
Dogecoin
Ripple
Tether
The Future of the Crypto Gambling Market
Ever since online casinos and sportsbooks first started accepting payments via Bitcoin, the crypto gambling industry saw a huge rise in popularity. Estimates show that just in three years since 2014, the Bitcoin stakes that were placed at online casinos reached $4.5 billion. Statistics showed that more than 24.5 billion bets were placed via Bitcoin in just the two years between 2014 and 2016.Total Cryptocurrency Market Cap January, 2018 – January, 2021 January 2018 $602,840.498,176 January 2019 $128,596,826,486 January 2020 $192,560,041,304 January 2021 $767,974,284,705 The Drastic Change in the Daily Price of Bitcoin 17.12.2017 19,167 18.12.2018 3,201 16.04.2021 63,347 30.05.2021 34,536 Top 7 Most Traded Cryptocurrencies Worldwide 2021 (based on volume in July) Tether (USDT) 42.23 Bitcon (BTC) 22.81 Ethereum (ETH) 17.96 Binance USD (BUSD) 3.26 USD Coin (USDC) 2.04 Ethereum Classic (ETC) 1.98 Ripple (XRP) 1.87 2020 Trading Volume of Bitcoin on Online Exchanges in Different Countries United States 1,523.6 Russia 421.38 Nigeria 400.08 Europe (rest of) 204.41 China 198.26 United Kingdom 193 Colombia 147.49 Kenya 91.96 South Africa 87 Canada 65.56 India 63.72 Australia 54.78 Argentina 47.85
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