By all accounts, 2022 has continued the trend of cryptocurrency’s prominence across several sectors. These industries’ attention has been mostly focused on crashes and several developments, and this trend shows no signs of subsiding. That also applies to the world of online gambling for real money.
SOFTSWISS publishes a report once every few months updating the community on the potential of the industry by providing the most up-to-date knowledge on the performance of cryptocurrencies across key products. The operator has a unique perspective on the iGaming software market being the first company of its kind to deal with cryptocurrency.
The latest report from the operator on the crypto market is now available and contains a wealth of information on the current status of crypto betting.
Overall, the number of crypto bets put decreased, but the value of all bets in fiat currency climbed by 8.4% quarter over quarter and by 24.2% year to date. The decline in value was 5.9% from the second quarter. Cryptocurrency wagers have fallen by 23,5 % from the first three quarters of 2021.
A Downturn for Crypto Betting As Fiat Rises
The cyclical character of cryptocurrency markets was exposed in the second quarter of 2022. Even though this is not anywhere close to the “crypto winter” that the iGaming sector has been warning about, it does portend a period of decline for cryptocurrency betting.
In Q4, however, seasonality is likely to come into play because it always does at the start of the holiday season, when bets tend to increase.
“As a comparatively new phenomenon in the iGaming industry, cryptocurrency faces a volatile environment, depending on different economic and social factors. However, we expect crypto rates to increase in the fourth quarter of this year, which will be driven by current gaming activity.”
Vitali Matsukevich, COO at SOFTSWISS.
More than 70% of wagers are put using fiat money, whereas just a third of the entire wager volume is placed using cryptocurrency. Another key point is that the proportion of cryptocurrency bets was much higher at about 44% when compared to the proportion in the first three quarters of 2021.
Despite a sustained drop in crypto bets in the third quarter of 2022, SOFTSWISS remains bullish in cryptocurrency since players still want to utilize alternative currencies. The trend of more and more service providers including it as a payment option is likely to continue.