Since its launch, the first cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, has caused quite a stir in the financial community. In recent years, there has also been an exponential expansion in the online casino business. This article investigates how Bitcoin could affect online casinos in the future, analyzing its advantages, disadvantages and its possible impact on the sector as a whole.
Other payment methods for online casinos
Although other methods of payment are still more popular Among online casino players such as credit / debit cards, electronic wallets such as PayPal and Skrill, bank transfers and prepaid cards, these options offer comfort, security and wide acceptance. Players can choose the method that best suits their preferences, ensuring smooth and hassle-free transactions while enjoying their favorite casino games, on a crypto casino. Thus, players will be able to choose the most appropriate cryptocurrency for their transactions.
The effect of Bitcoin on online casino transactions
Traditional banking methods are no longer needed thanks to Bitcoin’s introduction to online casinos. Players can avoid slow procedures like bank transfers and credit card checks.
Online casinos simplify deposit and withdrawal procedures by adopting Bitcoin as a payment option, allowing players to access faster and more comfortable transactions. In addition, as Bitcoin is accessible everywhere, it removes geographic restrictions and makes it easier for players around the world to participate in online games.
Bitcoin’s impact on equity and trust
Ensuring fairness and trust between players and operators is one of the biggest concerns in the online casino sector. Bitcoin addresses these issues using blockchain technology. The idea of the “ demonstrable fair game ” allows players to independently confirm the legitimacy of each game, avoiding manipulation of the results.
Players develop confidence as they can confirm the reliability of the gaming platform thanks to the transparent and auditable nature of blockchain technology. Bitcoin improves the overall legitimacy of online casinos by allaying concerns about game manipulation and cheating.
Issues and aspects to consider when using Bitcoin in online casinos
The integration of Bitcoin in online casinos has many advantages, but it also has drawbacks and aspects to consider. Operators must navigate complicated frameworks, as regulatory and legal ramifications differ by region. Furthermore, both players and operators face market risks as a result of Bitcoin’s volatility.
Changes in the value of the cryptocurrency could affect the outcome of the players’ game and the profitability of online casinos. Players and operators must also be aware of the complexities involved in using Bitcoin for the game due to educational obstacles.
Bitcoin’s impact on the online casino sector
Using Bitcoin in online casinos has the potential to transform the market. By using Bitcoin, the balance of power between players and operators can change, giving users more authority over their money and their betting options.
Casinos compete to offer distinctive experiences to attract Bitcoin customers, fostering innovation and competition in the industry. In addition, the emergence of decentralized blockchain technology-based gaming platforms may present new opportunities for environments where the game is fair, open, and community-led.
Practical cases: Effective integration of Bitcoin in online casinos
Numerous online casinos have already used Bitcoin and have been successful. These success stories serve as an example of the benefits of adopting Bitcoin as a form of payment, including increasing transaction volume, improving security and greater player participation. By presenting these case studies, online casinos can obtain real case information and implement methods to successfully incorporate Bitcoin on their platforms.
Bitcoin’s future in online casinos
Bitcoin in online casinos seems to have a promising future. As more participants learn about its benefits, Bitcoin’s adoption is likely to continue to grow. However, the environment could be affected by issues such as legislative changes and the rise of digital central bank currencies ( CBDC ). To ensure that Bitcoin integration remains a viable option for online casinos, the industry must adapt to these changes.
Automated Trading software and crypto trading bots are increasingly popular in the cryptocurrency market. It is becoming evident that the main cryptocurrency exchanges are interested in these automated trading systems and offer them as a tool to help traders automate their operations in the crypto market.
Two new grid trading robots have been introduced by the Bybit exchange. Today’s automated traders are Spot Grid Trading bot and Advanced Dollar-Cost average (DCA) robot. Bybit plans to build on the success of the first trading bot that has transacted more than $120,000,000 in value. Both of these new features are available to everyone starting September 16th. Bybit also offers a leaderboard that allows users to see the top-performing bots and their working methods.
Take a look at the new trading bots from Bybit.
The new Spot Grid Bot from Bybit will place low buy orders and high sales orders during sideways price movements. It uses AI to determine parameters in order to maximize the return on investment. The strategy does not require market forecasting as it guarantees a profit if the selling price exceeds the buying price.
Spot Trading offers a variety of strategies that are easy to follow and have high arbitrage success rates. Its flexible and adaptable strategies make it easy to plan for market shifts and capitalize on them.
DCA Trading Bot allows users to automate the purchase of crypto assets. Users can choose an investment amount and a time period. DCA-ing, a proven method to achieve a good trade-off between potential reward and risk in an unpredictable market, is tried-and-true. Grid bots have a lower threshold of $3, while DCA bots require a trade minimum of $1.
Ben Zhou, CEO and co-founder of Bybit, stated:
“Our trading bot is still in beta and has already become very popular. The bot’s copy trading function allows users to create successful bots and then copy them. This was a huge hit with our clients. Grid trading bots are a very profitable trading method for their users, especially in a market that is so fluid like crypto.
Once the user has set their trading parameters and made a profit, they can share their strategy with other traders simply by clicking a button. For a limited period, customers who use one of the new trading bots will be eligible for free trades. This discount is offered as part of Bybit’s “Perfect 10 Party”, a promotion that celebrates 10 million customers.
Global Head of Equity and FX Products, Tim McCourt says that interest in ether derivatives has exploded. One of only two U.S.-licensed exchanges, the exchange is already experiencing a 43% increase daily trading volume, compared to last.
Cumberland, a digital asset division of DRW based in Chicago, provides liquidity. Genesis, a company that specializes in digital currency transactions, loans, and other transactions, will provide ether options contracts for their clients.
McCourt stated that the CME Group launched two types derivative products in August: euro-denominated Bitcoin and ether futures. These were designed to help institutional investors reduce the risk of the volatility associated with cryptocurrencies.
You want to profit from the ETH price rise
The launch of ether options occurs as ether prices rise 10.3% since the Ethereum merge on Sep. 6, 2022. This is in addition to the Bellatrix upgrade, and the last mainnet shadow fork being live on Sept. 9, 2022. McCourt says the launch is “well-timed”.
The futures products were also released at a time when bitcoin prices were just above $19,000 to $20,000 The price of ether was slightly higher than $1,500. Both crypto assets were down more than 60% since Nov. 2021’s highs.
There are two types options contracts. An option contract that allows you to open a call option to purchase an underlying asset at the strike price, but within a certain time period. The buyer can purchase the asset at the strike value and then sell it to make a profit if the asset’s price rises. A buyer who has a put option to purchase an asset at a certain price, such as $100, can sell it if the price drops to $80 and pocket the profit.
If the asset price falls after the expiration of the call option, the investor will lose their initial investment. If the asset price increases above the initial investment before the contract expires, the investor will lose their initial investment. This is also known as a premium.
CME’s new product has one ether futures contracts, each 50-ETH in size. To determine the price of ether, the contract uses the CME CF ETher-Dollar Refer Rate.
High leverage derivatives products can increase liquidation risk by increasing the likelihood of losing your money.
The most common combination of derivative products and high levels of borrowing is to increase returns to investors. They have historically been more popular with professional than retail developers. Options and futures allow investors to only put up a fraction of the deal’s value. Even the leading binary options brokers are now starting offering options contract on Ethereum.
Coinbase has recently launched the nano Bitcoin-Futures product, which allows investors with smaller pockets to invest without the risk of liquidation associated with high-leverage trading.
The retail broker function of crypto exchanges allows them to open the derivatives market up to retail investors by making strategic acquisitions. Exchanges such as Coinbase or FTX that have a futures commission merchant licence can be acquired by other derivatives exchanges. This will allow them to build retail outlets in lucrative markets.
CME Group was responsible for 4% crypto derivatives trading globally in Jan. 2022.
The bullishness of previous launches has not been evident
CME Group has always seen peaks in the prices of derivative products when they launch them. The marketplace launched its first bitcoin product on December 17, 2017. Bitcoin hit an all time high of $19 423.58, while ETH rose to $728.70. This was part of an upward trend that would see it reach an all-time record high of $1,448.18 Saturday, January 13, 2017. The launch of ProShares’ bitcoin Exchange-Traded fund on Oct. 19, 2021 saw ETH rise from $3,752.62 to an all-time high $4,878.26 by November 10. Bitcoin continued to rise on the launch day, reaching an all-time high at $69,000 on November 10, 2021.
A long trip to the moon? – For journalists who have passed the stage of systematically denigrating cryptocurrencies (without having really tried to understand them), the tone is rather optimistic for the future of the crypto sphere. This is the case of one of the main market analysts of the Bloomberg media, who consider that the 2 main crypto-assets on the market are still largely undervalued from a long-term perspective.
BITCOIN AND ETHEREUM STILL IN THEIR TAKE-OFF PHASE?
Within the major economic media Bloomberg, analyst Mike McGlone is a veteran and specialist in the commodities markets. He has a keen interest in Bitcoin (BTC) – which he expects to see hit $100,000 – and the crypto-asset market in general.
In a recent tweet, Mike McGlone once again expressed his thoughts regarding the great future that certain cryptocurrencies could have. Thus, for the journalist-analyst, the growing demand combined with the scarcity of bitcoins and ethers (ETH) would promise them sustained growth in their valuation.
“Bitcoin and Ethereum are still in the early stages of adoption, with increasing demand versus decreasing supply, and therefore implications for their value. Our bias is – why try to complicate things – so unless some unlikely event reverses the spread of this nascent technology, prices should rise over time. »
Indeed, with emissions of new bitcoins and ether increasingly weak (even deflationary) and with a growing adoption of these blockchain networks so far, prices should mechanically rise, too. But that’s without counting on the desire for very framed regulation of cryptos, which is pushed around the world by governments and financial monitoring organizations, the United States in the lead.
Investors are starting to get more optimistic and $40,000 resistance could be broken at any time, analysts point out.
The historic highs of the month of February have been confirmed so far amid a greater appetite for risk from investors, which makes Bitcoin (BTC) stabilize well above the low of about $ 33,000 seen in January. At 7am, the cryptocurrency was trading at $38,559, close to stability on the day, but with accumulated gains of 4.3% in a week.
Among analysts, the thesis is gaining strength that the Federal Reserve’s monetary tightening is finally being digested and that the digital asset could break the barrier of US$ 40 thousand at any moment. As a result, the chances of a short squeeze in the futures market increase, which occurs when the price of an asset suddenly rises and leads to the liquidation of short positions (which bet on the fall).
The Fear and Greed Index, which measures market sentiment, rose from “extreme fear” territory last week, a sign that the moment of heightened pessimism is starting to pass. The index is now close to the July 2020 lows, which preceded a strong cryptocurrency price rally.
“On Sunday, the index briefly hit 30 – the highest level in 2022,” analysts Arcane Research wrote in a report on Tuesday. Still, some analysts prefer to see an increase in trading volume to confirm a shift in sentiment from pessimism to optimism.
Volatility can be driven precisely by the moment of low trading volume – the lower the volume, the greater the space for sudden price changes. The scenario stems mainly from the lack of activity in Asia, the exchanges of China, Hong Kong, South Korea and Singapore closed this week for the Chinese New Year holiday.
For Arcane, a jump beyond $40,000 should bring traders back. “Bitcoin is currently struggling against the $40K resistance and if it manages to break it, we could see a burst of volume similar to when it dropped below that level,” the report pointed out.
In a note, trading firm QCP Capital also pointed out that “a short-term setup [is] brewing for a bounce, especially at a close above $40k for Bitcoin and $3k for Ethereum in February. ”.
According to blockchain analytics firm Santiment, 40,785 bitcoins left exchanges last week, recording the biggest BTC outflow since September. “The ongoing trend of coins moving to cold wallets [disconnected from the Internet] is historically good for long-term price movements,” Santiment said via Twitter.
A near-term rally could ease the pressure on publicly traded companies that acquired Bitcoin as a treasury strategy. MicroStrategy, which has the largest Bitcoin treasury, with more than 125,000 BTC, recorded a $147 million reduction in the asset’s book balance on the Q4 2021 balance sheet due to the cryptocurrency’s depreciation.
MicroStrategy reports $147 million “loss” from Bitcoin depreciation
MicroStrategy reported a cost related to the depreciation of non-cash digital assets of $146.6 million in the fourth quarter of 2021, up from $65.2 million in the previous quarter, according to the company’s latest balance sheet.
The loss reflects the decline in the price of Bitcoin from the price at which the cryptocurrency was acquired. According to US accounting rules, the value of digital assets, which includes cryptocurrencies, must be recorded at their cost and adjusted only if their value decreases. If the price goes up, the gain can only appear on the balance sheet after the asset is sold.
In 2021, MicroStrategy recorded total losses of $831 million on digital assets, up from $71 million in 2020.
The company’s 124,391 bitcoins held at the end of December 31, 2021 were acquired for $3.752 billion, reflecting an average cost per Bitcoin of approximately $30,159, the company said.
MicroStrategy reported yesterday morning that it purchased approximately 660 additional bitcoins for around $25 million between December 30, 2021 and January 31, 2022. This gives the company a total of 125,051 bitcoins, valued at around $4. .8 billion at today’s price.
Amid the controversy, Cardano proposes updating the network
Input Output, the development company behind Cardano ([active-ADA]), proposed this Wednesday (2) an update aimed at increasing the block size of the network by 11%.
“We proposed the next parameter update as we continue to increase the capacity of the Cardano network according to plan. The proposal will increase the block size by another 8KB from 72KB to 80KB,” Input Output said via Twitter.
Blocks are batches of transactions confirmed and recorded on a blockchain. Larger sizes mean more transactions can be included in each batch, but they can also affect transaction time and overall network capacity.
In a second proposal, the developers suggested increasing the performance of the Plutus smart contract platform. If implemented, the change would increase the amount of data that can be included in a single transaction from 12.5 million to 14 million.
The proposals are in line with a broader plan to increase transactional volumes on the Cardano network as it moves towards becoming a blockchain focused on decentralized finance (DeFi).
Recently, two DeFi projects that run on the Cardano network clashed and opened up the difficulties faced by the project to create an ecosystem of solutions capable of rivaling Ethereum.
Cryptocurrency donations to incognito browser Tor soar 841% in 2021
Cryptocurrency donations to the anonymous browser Tor increased by 841% in 2021 compared to the previous year, according to the non-profit organization The Tor Project, which is responsible for the project.
Of the $940,000 raised last year, 58% of donations were in cryptocurrencies. The much higher percentage compared to 2020 when donors sent $58K worth of cryptocurrencies.
“It is clear that cryptocurrency users are extremely philanthropic and care deeply about online privacy,” Tor Project fundraising director Al Smith told CoinDesk.
Of the cryptocurrency donations, 68% ($371k) were in Bitcoin, 28% ($154k) in Ethereum, 2% ($9k) in DAI and 1% ($7k) in Monero, a privacy-focused cryptocurrency.
The cryptocurrency sell-off never ends. Bitcoin plunges below $34,000. More than $1 trillion in market value has evaporated since November. Experts see three reasons for the crash.
The roughly 17,000 different cryptocurrencies have lost more than a trillion dollars in market value since their November high
The renewed heavy losses on the US technology exchange and the uncertainty about the extent and speed of interest rate increases unsettle crypto investors massively. After falling below $38,000 last Friday, the slide accelerated over the weekend as Bitcoin slid below $35,000 and approached $33,000 on Monday. On the Coinbase crypto exchange, the prices for other crypto currencies such as Solana, Cardano or Binance Coin also fell significantly again. Bitcoin has lost more than half of its value since peaking in November.
Was that it – at least for now?
Even declared supporters of digital currencies start pondering this question. Famed crypto investor Mike Novogratz, 57, mused on Twitter that “this will be a year when people realize that being an investor is a tough job.”
Others believe that with the recent panicked sell-off, sellers may soon be outnumbered and Bitcoin may have bottomed for now. At some point the sellers are “exhausted”. And “if that’s the case, then institutional investors will jump back in in a significant way,” financial news outlet Bloomberg quoted Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak + Co. as saying. “They know cryptocurrencies aren’t going away, so they are anytime soon have to invest in them again.”
Bitcoin’s crash alone has wiped out more than $600 billion in market value since the November high. The overall crypto market lost more than $1 trillion to less than $1.8 trillion last time. Experts see three factors, some of which influence each other, for the recent, accelerating price drop in cryptocurrencies.
- Concerns about tighter US monetary policy
- the sell-off in technology stocks since the beginning of the year
- increasing regulatory threats
“Cryptocurrencies are responding to the same type of dynamics weighing on risky assets around the world,” said Stephane Ouellette, CEO and co-founder of institutional crypto platform FRNT Financial.
With inflation galloping as a result, the US Federal Reserve will probably raise interest rates at least three times this year. Some market observers expect four or more rate hikes and are not ruling out a large rate hike of 50 basis points in March. At the same time, the Fed is reducing its bond purchases, gradually reducing its inflated balance sheet. In doing so, it withdraws liquidity from the markets, which restricts speculative transactions.
Tech stocks and cryptocurrencies correlate
Antoni Trenchev, co-founder and shareholder of Nexo, a provider of crypto savings accounts and crypto loans, points to a correlation between Bitcoin and technology stocks. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 has seen a staggering rise to as high as 16,700 points over the past 10 years and is now down around 2,000 points year-to-date. “Bitcoin is being hit by a wave of risk-down sentiment. For more clues, we should keep an eye on traditional markets,” Trenchev says, according to Bloomberg.
Investor Novogratz, like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) recently, also points to an apparently closer connection between the prices for cryptocurrencies and the prices for technology stocks. “Cryptocurrencies will have a hard time bouncing back unless a bottom is also found in tech stocks,” he tweeted. For a long time, crypto fans believed that the prices for digital currencies were relatively independent of stocks.
El Salvador was the first country in the world to introduce Bitcoin as legal tender. The International Monetary Fund sees risks to financial stability in this – and is putting pressure on the government.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has asked El Salvador to revoke the legal tender status of the digital currency Bitcoin. In a statement on Tuesday, the IMF’s board of directors emphasized that there are major risks associated with the use of bitcoin – for financial stability, financial integrity and consumer protection, as well as the associated tax contingencies.
The Central American state was the first country in the world to give the cryptocurrency this status in September. The IMF has been warning of the high price fluctuations of cryptocurrencies for some time.
The Bitcoin Nation
With digital forms of payment such as the Chivo e-wallet introduced in the Central American country, financial inclusion could be promoted, it said. However, the new economic environment around Chivo and Bitcoin must be strictly regulated and monitored.
Negotiations on a credit package worth billions
The occasion was talks on the economic situation, which the Washington-based UN special organization regularly conducts with member states. El Salvador has been negotiating a $1.3 billion loan package with the IMF for some time.
According to El Salvador’s bitcoin law, any merchant technically able to do so must accept the cryptocurrency. Taxes can also be paid in it. Controversial President Nayib Bukele also announced the construction of a “Bitcoin City” in November.
Bitcoin is the most well-known digital currency. It is not controlled by a central bank, but created by a decentralized, energy-intensive computer process. Bitcoin is considered an object of speculation and is subject to violent price fluctuations: the price of a Bitcoin was just under $37,000 on Tuesday – in November it had reached a high of around $68,000.