Normally, we’re pretty big on crypto casino deposits and withdrawals around here. And we still are.
For the best balance of convenience across the board — and because you don’t have to be paid out via check or bank wire when using crypto to gamble online — there’s no better option.
But there’s one big negative to making Bitcoin betting deposits, Litecoin betting deposits, etc. And that’s that the price of these digital currencies always fluctuates.
And these aren’t small fluctuations, either.
Sure, there might be weeks or months where the price of a given coin stays more or less the same. There might even be years where you won’t see much movement with the biggest coins at the top of the list.
But more often than not, there’s going to be some movement. That means you’ll need a strategy not only for how you play your favorite online casino games, how you play online poker, and how you bet sports online; you’ll also need a strategy for when you should deposit a given asset, whether or not to convert it to USD at the time of deposit, and when you should request your crypto betting withdrawals.
On paper, it’s easy to know when you should do these things.
Basically, you should always deposit when your crypto asset is trading lower than usual, and you should always withdraw when your crypto asset is trading…lower than usual.
Of course, that last part is only important if you’re using a coin that carries high blockchain fees. Until recently, for example, bettors who used Ethereum definitely needed to keep an eye on these so-called gas fees. Now, with most crypto coins being proof of stake (PoS) rather than proof of work (PoW), the difference in transaction fees in terms of the coin’s overall value is negligible.
The exception on the withdrawal side today is reserved for those players who converted their coins to USD upon depositing. If you did that, you need to convert those dollars back into crypto when the coin’s value is low. In other words, you want to maximize your coin haul on the premise that the value will eventually go back up.
But all that aside — and to be honest, it is an aside (as in it’s something you don’t have too much control over and shouldn’t worry too much about) — there’s another consideration we’ve been ruminating on lately: crypto bonuses.
You already know that crypto welcome bonuses and crypto reload bonuses are always better than bonuses you get when depositing with cash. This is true regardless of the gambling site you choose, and it’s true for both casino gambling and sports betting. For whatever reason, most sites with multiplayer poker (i.e. real live online poker as opposed to just online video poker) don’t offer specific crypto bonuses for poker deposits.
But for most players in most markets, crypto is the default better option when it comes to online gambling promotions.
The reason for this is two-fold.
First, online casinos based internationally prefer their users to deposit with crypto. It’s easier, it’s faster, there are no credit card processing fees to worry about, and there’s no need to mess with currency conversion rates. It’s 1:1, every time. And for American players, crypto legally and safely obviates the effect of the meddlesome and annoying UIGEA banking law.
The second reason these sites prefer crypto deposits — and this is strictly theoretical on our part, to be clear — is because gambling sites were one of the first adopters of cryptocurrency as a means of trade. There’s a solid argument to be made that crypto as such would not exist today without online betting websites. There’s even an argument to be made that one particular gambling site was directly responsible for the development of Bitcoin.
But whether or not that’s true, it’s indisputable that these sites got on the crypto bandwagon before just about anyone else. And that means they bought in when prices were unfathomably low. Remember when Bitcoin was trading at a penny per coin? We do. And sites like Bovada and BetOnline really do.
That’s when they bought in. And bought big.
So the next time you pull out a few grand in Bitcoin from your bankroll at one of these sites, they’re only losing a few cents. In other words, you’re both up huge.
And until these reserves run out, it’s always going to be hugely profitable for these sites to pay you in crypto. In the specific case of Bitcoin, the reserves are probably never going to run out.
Anyway, that’s just some background for why these sites like BTC and other cryptocurrencies.
So, back to the primary issue: deposit bonuses.
The main question we have, especially lately, is why crypto bonuses don’t seem to get better — read, “more enticing” — with meaningful market fluctuations.
For the last few years, the general crypto market has been hibernating. It’s been a three-plus-year bear market. As such, there’s a bit of an inkling that the market could spike back up any day now. Literally. And it absolutely could.
That means a couple things.
First off, it means it’s going to be harder to convince some customers to tie their crypto up in a betting account (especially if they’re required to convert that crypto to USD or CAD, which some lesser gambling sites mandate). The thinking is that bettors could actually be priming themselves to take a big hit on their bottom line one day to the next, compared to betting with fiat money from the beginning.
Secondly, with a prolonged bear market, some “hodlers” are going to think it’s just as likely for their crypto to depreciate further — also overnight.
In other words, gamblers should have a bigger incentive to use crypto when the market is at prolonged lows.
Here’s the fun part: The exact opposite is also true!
If crypto is booming and multiple major coins are rocketing toward their all-time highs, it would make sense for gambling sites to give depositors sweeter deals for using their crypto to bet online. In fact, it makes more sense for these sites to give better crypto bonuses during bull markets, especially since those markets don’t last as long as bear markets.
Sure, the operators don’t want to let you bet in Bitcoin when the payout of x coins is going to be functionally more valuable than the deposit even if you break even. We get that. But the nature of bonus requirements — aka playthrough or rollover (for casino and sports, respectively) — means that gamblers are generally more likely to have their funds tied up during the peak crypto valuations.
As you can see, it’s tricky.
The volatility of crypto currency means there’s no real way for any online gambling site to know when their bonuses “make sense” for the customer. As such, there’s no real motivation for such sites to get too deep into the psychology of things.
Instead, they’re just sticking with the same fair-to-middling crypto bonuses they’ve offered for years.
And that actually does make some sense.
What’s more, it’s become a sign of legitimacy in the competitive and still relatively wild online gambling space.
Basically, if you come across a site offering a crazy $10,000 Bitcoin bonus (unless it’s a specific short-term promo at an otherwise established and trusted online gambling website, it’s best to stay away. Either the bonus requirements are unrealistically limiting, or the the site is a straight-up scam by some fly-by-night no-name operator.
In the end, it’s probably a good sign that your site doesn’t have super valuable crypto bonuses when compared to their standard offers. If an operator is giving you 20-50% more for crypto deposits compared to credit/debit deposits, that’s the mark of a credible venue.
It’s not the only mark, but it’s a good one.
So make your deposit, take your bonus, and make your mark.
