Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies have been going through a pretty severe bear market during 2018. The bitcoin price has dropped by about 60% since its peak in December 2017, while other altcoins like Ethereum, Litecoin and Bitcoin Cash have performed even worse. 2017 was a huge year for cryptocurrency adoption in the offshore gambling sector. Major sportbooks and poker rooms like BetOnline, 5Dimes, Bovada and Ignition Casino embraced BTC and it proved to be hugely popular with gamblers who were not being serviced by the traditional banking system due to anti-gambling regulations. The big question is, has the current crypto currency bear market affected the adoption rate at major online gambling operators. According to a recent article by the Offshore Gambling Association, it has had almost zero impact. A representative from Heritage sports confirmed that "More and more customers are gravitating to crypto irrespective of rise and fall of pricing." Because Heritage never held large balances in crypto, they were unaffected by the recent drop in price, however, not every sportsbook was as lucky. One unnamed source in the article admits that they held over 100 BTC for speculative reasons while the price was rising, which they now admit was a mistake. They eventually sold at $10,000 and made a respectable $300,000 on the trade, but they would have made a million dollars had they sold at the peak. So in summary, online gambling sites are still seeing increases in cryptocurrency adoption and have been largely unaffected by price fluctuations providing they don't keep larges reserves of crypto's.
a lot of people were rich at the end of 2017 from the crypto bubble so i'm sure some of that money went to the gambling sites so i'm not sure i believe that this bear market hasn't affected some of the sportsbooks and casinos.
Very true, a lot of crypto owners felt very rick around Xmas 2017 so I'd be surprised if they didn't gamble away some of their new found wealth at various gambling sites. The crash has to have affected the crypto-only sportsbooks and casinos. I doubt it had a huge affect on fiat sportsbooks that accept crypto like BetOnline or 5Dimes.
People who buy crypto and then immediately dump it at 5dimes or Americas Cardroom don't care about a bear market. If you don't hold crypto for more than an hour or two the price means nothing. It just means that you get very cheap transaction fees.
Personally, I hate spending my bitcoin during a bull market. If I place a wager with a $100 worth of bitcoin and then the following month that bitcoin is worth $150 it makes me a little sick. During a bull market I think you are better off getting rid of your dollars and euros and holding your BTC.