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Chris DeRose, an expert in the bitcoin field and writer for the Brietbart website, says that the anonymous digital currency now represents at least half of the deposits and withdrawals taking place at most North American facing online sportsbooks and casinos as well as in other world jurisdictions where payment processing is difficult.
Underreported in the headlines is the rampant growth of bitcoin deposits in online sports book and online casino gambling, he notes.
In fact, most of these sites now require their affiliate partners to set up Bitcoin accounts for withdrawal of funds.
The price of Bitcoin has shot through the roof since the start of this year, reaching the $2000 mark for the first time. Prices for a single bitcoin currently exceeding the all-time high price for an ounce of gold.
Most of the new buy-ins would appear to come from Japanese exchanges. Asian speculator demand has led bitcoin growth in recent years, DeRose writes.
So what’s behind the fervor?
Possibly “political chaos”, but DeRose questions this notion.
Popular news outfits such as CNBC have taken a sharp deviation from prior characterizations of Bitcoin as an absurdist investment and are instead depicting the asset as a mechanism to hedge against “political chaos” in the U.S. stock market. The evidence for such uptake amongst U.S. investors is weak, but it does appear that Bitcoin’s performance has been decoupled from most major economic indicators. As such, bitcoin may very well represent a viable asset class to new investors for the purpose of risk diversification.
Barring any major developments, bitcoin’s dramatic ride is likely to continue. DeRose points to an increase in speculators purchasing of so-called “ICOs” and “alts”, a new blockchain “stock market” that he describes as “unregulated and growing fast”.
In the meantime, the last of the big North American-facing online sportsbooks, The Greek (Olympic Sports), finally implemented its bitcoin platform late last month while other sites such as BetOnline have delve into the world of litecoin.
Bitcoin-only books and casinos still represent a degree of risk in the sector with well-entrenched DirectBet abruptly shutting down this week.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
