As a cryptocurrency enthusiast, it’s extremely pleasant to see that crypto is getting accepted as a mode of payment outside of the shady part of the web. Sure, one of the first Bitcoin transactions was done years ago when Laszlo Hanyecz bought some pizza with BTC. But apart from federally prosecuted purchases, there were little advances in the number of goods you can purchase with BTC in the 2010s.
As of today, there are dozens of vendors that accept cryptocurrencies, but the biggest advances have been made in the casino industry. The most important thing is that these platforms don’t just accept Bitcoin but other prominent cryptos, popularizing them even further.
Wonder what the best crypto casinos accept? Here’s a list of the top five options that frequently appear on gambling platforms.
1. Bitcoin
If you’re seeing an online casino that promotes itself as one that accepts cryptocurrencies, there’s a 99% chance that at least one of those currencies will be Bitcoin. It’s no wonder since BTC is a pioneer in terms of crypto and many people who are new to the topic automatically associate crypto with Bitcoin.
Since Bitcoin is so popular (the extent of its popularity is shown by the constantly growing exchange rate), it’s one of the first currencies that the newcomers look into. The casinos adjust accordingly and start offering it. Even the platforms that do not market themselves as cryptocurrency casinos start listing this payment option.
One of the main features that make Bitcoin casinos stand apart from the rest is the size of the bonus they’re willing to give. In a regular casino, a new customer may expect to get upwards of several thousand dollars in bonus money. In a BTC casino, you’re looking at sums up to 1 BTC, which is huge in comparison.
2. Ethereum
Next on the list is Ethereum. Though this crypto is not the first, it has some great advantages over BTC. One of them is the fact that it’s much more people-oriented than BTC. Ethereum aims to create an ecosystem for e-commerce and for other coins. It has extensive guides on the website that help steer new crypto enthusiasts and vendors who want to take ETH payments in the right direction.
What’s the result of all that work on top of designing a revolutionary system? Ethereum is starting to be accepted by many vendors worldwide. There are over 2000 as of today, mainly SaaS companies, web hosts, and online casinos.
The bonuses are also quite high when a player deposits in ETH, it reaches 300 ETH in some cases.
3. Bitcoin Cash
Bitcoin Cash (BCH) has produced controversy when it was first rolled out and doesn’t seem to be holding that well right now. Its price dropped from the all-time high of $4000 to a bit under $300 in 2020.
While it’s not the best asset in terms of long-term investment, a lot of people are still using it to this day. Why? One of the things that prevent BTC from becoming accepted worldwide is the transaction price. It depends on the number of transactions in the system and when it grows, so does the price.
As of December 2020, the average price is around $2, though it used to hit as high as $60 in 2018 when BTC was at its peak. You can easily see how that, compared with the BCH transaction price that is measured in cents, would scare off some people.
To add to that, Bitcoin Cash also has a smart contract system which makes the probability of fraud a bit lower. With that, BCH still remains a valid method of making payments online, albeit an unfortunate investment as some experts say.
4. Dogecoin
Dogecoin is not exactly what you have in mind when you think about gambling. Or about making transactions online, to be honest. It was started as a joke and never cost over one US dollar despite reaching a 1 billion market cap.
Bening extremely cheap — DOGE is now traded at $0,003219 — is actually one of the factors contributing to it still being in use. The transactions practically cost nothing and if you need anything, there’s a huge community on Reddit willing to help. So even if it costs nothing in comparison to BTC, the low transaction fees and fast transaction time keep it alive.
It’s mostly used for tipping on different platforms, but it’s also accepted as a payment method by some vendors. Notably, there are over 30 casinos that accept DOGE.
5. Dash
Dash is a Litecoin fork that is often left out of the conversation when it comes to cryptocurrencies. It costs less than LTC or ETH so it’s not considered to be among the best by many. But it did show a great growth back in 2016 and even though it did come down from that growth, a trading price of $97 is pretty decent.
One of the main reasons people use Dash for online transactions including for online casino payments is the fact that it’s faster and more anonymous than BTC. With Dash, you can make private transactions that are not visible to anyone with a blockchain explorer. Sure, this obstacle is easily overcome by using a new BTC address each time you make a transaction, but it’s easy to see why a newcomer would just roll with Dash.
On top of that, you don’t have to wait 10 minutes before the transaction is confirmed. It takes about 2 minutes to complete a private transaction and several seconds to send money publicly.
New horizons for crypto in 2020
It’s been a wild ride for cryptocurrencies since the first Bitcoin was mined. Now, at last, different coins are being accepted by various vendors. While this is a great sign of growth that some enthusiasts take BTC and other cryptocurrencies, it’s very slow.
However, when a whole industry adopts it as standard to be featured on the same page with PayPal and Visa, this is good news for everybody who holds altcoins. When the whole online casino industry adopts some of the altcoins mentioned above as necessary payment options, we’re going to see their adoption go even further.