It’s 2024, so you’ve probably heard something about Bitcoin (or cryptocurrencies) by now, and typically, it’s market-related. You’ll hear people say, “My crypto is up this month”, or “Oh no, my crypto just went down.” Of course, everyone knows someone who has a friend, or a family member that made a lot of money on crypto, right?
If you take it purely on the investing aspect, there’s a real value to using cryptocurrency. Once you get familiar with it, it’s a really convenient and frictionless way to transfer currency. You might think we have that already in modern society, and we do, to some extent with Internet banking and modern technology.
Yes, we do, but it’s not available to everyone, everywhere, at any time, and with such low fees. That’s why we have several crypto casinos in Canada that accept it as a form of payment. It’s fast, cheap (no or low transaction fees) for you and the casino, and it avoids a lot of headaches. If you’re new to crypto, let’s explore what it means for you in terms of gaming online.
The Best Crypto-friendly Casinos in Canada
1. North Casino
One of the reasons why North Casino is on our list of top gaming sites is because they’re crypto-friendly. Whether you want to use Bitcoin, Bitcoin Cash, Litecoin, Ethereum, or USDT, the world is your oyster.
2. HellSpin Casino
HellSpin has a select number of cryptocurrencies you can use for deposits and withdrawals. That includes Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Litecoin. What really makes them stand out, is their deposit bonus. You can reach up to $5,200 along with free spins when you open an account and make your first deposit.
3. SOL Casino
You’d think SOL Casino would accept SOL (Solana), right? They don’t but they accept Bitcoin. We found the deposit process quite smooth here, and who can complain when they give you a deposit bonus on your first six – yes, that’s right, six deposits?
Decrypting Digital Currencies
A lot of people get into the nitty gritty of cryptocurrencies, what the differences are, and what they all mean. At the end of the day, if you’re just a casual person living your day-to-day life, just know this: it’s a really easy way to send money from one person (or place) to another. Not only is it swift, it’s secure, and easy to track.
Understanding the basics: how cryptocurrency really works
First off, there are so many different types of cryptocurrencies, so we can’t go through them all. However, the general idea is this: it’s digital money. There is no middleman, such as a bank or payment facilitator. Everything is tracked on a digital ledger, so it’s easy to see a record of transactions.
There are many differences between the currencies themselves. Bitcoin is the biggest brand, has a set limit of Bitcoins on the market, and is decentralized (no real middleman or entity controlling it). Ethereum, like many other cryptocurrencies – offers smart contracts. It’s complicated but it allows you to move money based on parameters. Most people still just use it to buy items or to send money.
Cryptocurrency even has niche categories such as:
- Meme coins – have a big following online as a new or trending currency. These are sometimes identified with animated characters or animal meme images, think Dogecoin or Shiba Inu
- Gaming tokens or non-fungible tokens (NFTs) – allow players to buy, sell, and trade unique in-game items across various platforms. Big contenders are Axie Infinity or The Sandbox, where popular NFTs can be traded on top exchange platforms
- Decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) – use smart contracts that are deployed on a blockchain and these coins are related to collective governance, where its holder is given a vote. Basically, this is the right to influence decision-making on the blockchain network. If you have this currency, you’ll be familiar with UniSwap and Maker.
The short story, though, is that this is digital money that’s easy to send and that’s what most casino players care about.
What are the most valuable crypto coins on the market?
The biggest cryptocurrency in the world is Bitcoin, period. It’s viewed as the most secure, most reliable, and most longstanding one. Ethereum is the second-largest in terms of market while Tether, BNB, and Solana jostle for the remainder of the top rankings in the market.
Tether brings a stable coin to the market called USDT. It doesn’t go up or down; it is pegged to $1. That is really useful in the cryptocurrency space if you’re worried about volatility. For example, you could send $300 USDT to a casino and they’ll deposit exactly $300 in your account, because the price won’t fluctuate. With all other cryptocurrencies, there might be some fluctuation.
Solana and many other cryptocurrencies are Ethereum alternates or competitors. These are typically more useful in other ways, other than just sending money.
Why Should You Deposit with Crypto?
There are several pros and cons when it comes to depositing or playing with cryptocurrency. Most of the pros come with depositing or banking with crypto. There are fewer when it comes to gaming with crypto.
Gambling at Canadian casinos
Not many casinos offer this but if you do stumble on a site that does, there are some perks — on the pros side, you can usually game anonymously. They might not even ask for your name or ID, you can play without anyone knowing who you are.
On the downside, when you game in cryptocurrency, you are subject to the volatility. Let’s say you start with one Bitcoin and lose 10% of it. Well, Bitcoin may have started the week at $40,000 and ended the week at $50,000. That means you lost a lot more than you would’ve, had you bet with US or Canadian Dollars. The same can go the other way and maybe the volatility works out in your favor. At any rate, you have to account for it.
Depositing with crypto
The biggest benefit of using crypto with online casinos is deposits and withdrawals. There are prepaid cards and bank wires and credit cards, the problem is, all of them typically come with fees. Credit cards, in particular, will charge a deposit as a cash advance. Online casino sites will also be charged fees by their financial providers, too.
When it comes to crypto, though, the fees are miniscule for both sides. For you, they’re minimal and for the casino, they’re also light. That’s why most casinos will pass those savings onto the player.
When you take a look at deposit bonuses across the board, crypto deposits tend to come with much higher bonuses, which is pretty sweet. As for cash, the numbers are lower. All you have to do is take cash, exchange it for crypto, and send it, the casino site will exchange it back into cash in your account. It’s done so fast that the exchange rate doesn’t even impact you.
When it comes to payouts, they’re lightning fast too. Just withdraw and the payments can get back to you within a matter of minutes. These are the biggest benefits to using crypto with gaming sites.
How do you purchase crypto?
One of the biggest challenges for newbies is getting over the crypto learning curve. It really just takes one or two times, but this is the challenge. With a credit card, you know exactly what to do. When it comes to digital currency, it’s still new to a lot of people.
First off, you’ll need to get an account at an exchange. For example, Coinbase and Binance are two well-known ones. Binance has the biggest trade volume per day, while Coinbase is a publicly traded company.
Once you’re there, you’d deposit as you would to any other site like a gaming site or PayPal, or even Amazon. You simply load your account and then buy the crypto of your choosing. When sending money to a casino site, it doesn’t really matter which you choose. However, some options like Ripple (XRP) or Litecoin (LTC) are popular because they send and receive money a little faster than Bitcoin does.
How to make a crypto deposit
- Acquire cryptocurrency
- Go to your casino account and make a deposit request
- You’ll receive an address to send to
- Take that back to the exchange
- Make sure you copy-past that 100% perfectly
- Double-check everything and then send
Well, that’s the gist of it. If you’re interested to learn more about casinos that offer cryptocurrency, take a look at these safe deposit options.
