What Is The Best Cryptocurrency For Online Sports Betting?

Here at SBL, we’ve been talking a lot about cryptocurrency lately.

And for good reason.

As online gamblers, we know a sure thing when we see it, and crypto has been solidly in that camp for over a decade now.

We’ve already discussed at length the benefits of using crypto to bet at legal online sportsbooks, but as a refresher, you get:

Deposits that transfer within just a few minutes
No UIGEA interference on transactions to or from your betting site
Access to enhanced sports betting bonuses
Guaranteed same-day payouts for all withdrawals
Low minimum deposit and withdrawal limits
High maximum deposit and withdrawal limits
No added fees on deposits or withdrawals
Quantum-hacking-resistant blockchain security for all transactions
Increased online anonymity
Investment grade assets that historically appreciate over time

Most of these perks, on their own, would be enough to convince the majority of online sports gambling fans to get started with crypto in earnest.

However, there’s something we don’t talk about all that often, and it’s something that’s sure to come up in the early stages for the uninitiated:

Choosing the best crypto option for online bet funding.

Right now, of the primary online sportsbooks we recommend, here are the cryptos each one currently accepts:

Bovada Sportsbook

Bitcoin
Bitcoin Cash
Bitcoin SV*
Ethereum
Litecoin

*For VIP Bovada Rewards members only

MyBookie Sportsbook

Bitcoin
Bitcoin Cash
Ethereum
Litecoin
Ripple

BetOnline Sportsbook

Bitcoin
Bitcoin Cash
Chainlink
Dogecoin
Ethereum
Litecoin
Ripple
Stellar
Tether
USD Coin

Xbet Sportsbook

Bitcoin
Bitcoin Cash
Litecoin

SportsBetting AG Sportsbook

Bitcoin
Bitcoin Cash
Chainlink
Dogecoin
Ethereum
Litecoin
Ripple
Stellar
Tether
USD Coin

Choosing The Best Cryptocurrency For Online Betting

There are several main considerations when it comes to which crypto asset will work best for your needs regarding online betting deposits and withdrawals.

That said, if you want to take a deep dive, you’ll find many additional, more nuanced factors.

But in the interest of brevity – and because we’re trying to hit the top of the bell curve in terms of what works best for most bettors – we’re going to focus only on the most pressing aspects to keep in mind.

Use The Crypto You Already Own

If you actually hold some crypto already, the easiest and best thing to do is to use that particular coin for your online betting deposits.

There’s nothing more to do, and you’re already set up to make quick transfers to your favorite online sportsbook.

Choose A Coin That Has Lower Blockchain Fees

All cryptocurrencies have built-in blockchain fees to be aware of. These are always dynamic, and they’re predicated on network traffic and the amount of crypto in question.

In general, the cryptocurrencies below have the following typical fee structures representing the average costs for average transactions. Some fees are assigned as flat rates, while others scale with the amount or crypto being sent or received.

Bitcoin – $2.33
Bitcoin Cash – $0.01
Bitcoin SV – $0.01
Chainlink – $4.96
Dogecoin – $0.67
Ethereum – $15.91
Litecoin – $0.017
Ripple – $0.002
Stellar – $0.000003
Tether – $0.00*
USD Coin – $0.00*

*On-platform wallet-to-wallet transfers of stablecoins are effectively free, though it will cost a nominal fee of 1-2% to send stablecoins off-platform.

Choose A Coin That Has Quicker Transfer Times

All crypto transactions must be verified, and that takes time (and in some cases, quite a bit of computing power). The following transfer times are what you can expect whenever you submit a betting deposit or receive a payout.

Note: These transaction windows do not include the time it takes for your sportsbook to review and approve your withdrawal request.

Bitcoin – 30-60 minutes
Bitcoin Cash – 60-120 minutes
Bitcoin SV – 10-15 minutes
Chainlink – 5-10 minutes
Dogecoin – 30-60 minutes
Ethereum – 30-60 minutes
Litecoin – 5-10 minutes
Ripple – 3-5 minutes
Stellar – 3-5 minutes
Tether – 5-10 minutes
USD Coin – 5-10 minutes

Choose The Coin With The Best Investment Potential

This is the most difficult element of all.

Even outside of online gambling, crypto investment itself – a market worth trillions of dollars – is based primarily on this one core rubric.

And for most coins, it’s a crapshoot.

But that’s why the top sports betting sites don’t support “most coins.” Instead, they only support a very small selection of the top-performing crypto assets in the world.

This makes things a bit easier, but there’s still some research you need to do.

Remember, you never have to buy a whole crypto coin.

Unlike stocks, there are no “shares” to purchase. You can buy fractions of a “share,” so to speak.

In the case of Bitcoin (BTC), you’d be buying mBTC (milliBitcoin). Ditto for Bitcoin Cash (mBCH), Bitcoin SV (mBSV), Ethereum (mETH) and Litecoin (mLTC).

For Dogecoin (DOGE), Ripple (XRP), Stellar (XLM), and Chainlink (LINK), these are priced such that whole coins are still attainable at little expense, so you’ll be working in whole units thereof.

And, of course, stablecoins like Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC) are always exactly a buck, so you can treat them like American dollars.

But the cheaper coins aren’t necessarily better in terms of investment potential.

If Bitcoin is trading at $45,000, for example, potential buyers might be put off because they can’t get “as many” Bitcoins as they can get Dogecoins. And though that’s true, the more important thing to consider is percentage of growth.

Again, this needs to be based on recent averages, because going back too far can skew the picture.

Example: Dogecoin appreciated 20,000% year-over-year from 2020 to 2021, while Bitcoin only appreciated by about 600% in that same time period. But nobody will suggest that DOGE is a better buy right now than BTC.

Sure, if you’d had the blind luck to put all your eggs in the Dogehouse last year, that would have been a wise move. But in reality, we don’t have the foresight of hindsight.

Here’s how the coins supported by the books we recommend have performed over the last month in terms of growth:

Bitcoin – 29.32%
Bitcoin Cash – 21.15%
Bitcoin SV – 10.68%
Chainlink – 33.97%
Dogecoin – 21.59%
Ethereum – 42.41%
Litecoin – 22.26%
Ripple – 49.84%
Stellar – 31.84%
Tether – 0.00%*
USD Coin – 0.00%*

*Stablecoins pegged 1:1 to the US dollar never appreciate or depreciate in terms of their dollar values.

Obviously, up till now, Ripple has been the clear winner. But we’re currently in a bull market, and all major crypto assets are spiking.

You can take the data back further to get a clearer idea of how these assets are performing year-over-year, in which case you’ll get the following:

Bitcoin – 288.88%
Bitcoin Cash – 114.78%
Bitcoin SV – -26.93%
Chainlink – 89.60%
Dogecoin – 7809.36%
Ethereum – 702.22%
Litecoin – 202.48%
Ripple – 235.15%
Stellar – 222.63%
Tether – 0.00%
USD Coin – 0.00%

Year-over-year, DOGE is far and away the most profitable investment.

But again, you must exercise caution.

Dogecoin is an exception, and its massive growth was triggered by a cultural shift promulgated largely by celebrity attention (mainly via Elon Musk’s periodic and cryptic Dogecoin tweets).

Dogecoin, despite its demonstrated growth, is viewed by most analysts to lack the potential for extreme further growth, and it may even be susceptible to significant depreciation above and beyond what you’d get with most other cryptocurrencies on this list.

The Final Word

The final word is that there’s really no final word.

You want to deposit with a cryptocurrency that won’t eat up your bankroll with high fees and won’t cut into your payouts with the same.

You also want to bank on an asset that shows demonstrated consistent growth.

Overall, Bitcoin is the most stable option. That is, it’s the one you can expect to reliably keep pressing ever upward in a more consistent and less volatile way.

But Bitcoin fees are high, and transfers can take up to an hour.

The main takeaway here is that we can take away some of these options for most users.

(Bear in mind, some investors and bettors will be bullish on the very coins we don’t recommend using. It’s also worth noting that all cryptocurrencies are superior bet funding banking options compared to credit cards, debit cards, bank wires, cashier’s checks, money orders, and so on.)

For us, given all of the above, we’d remove Bitcoin Cash (transfer times), Bitcoin SV (value trend), Chainlink (fees), Dogecoin (value trend), Tether (no growth potential), and USD Coin (no growth potential) from consideration.

Ripple is a bit beleaguered due to ongoing SEC litigation, so we’d defer on that for now, as well.

That leaves Bitcoin and Ethereum – which are never bad investments – along with Litecoin and Stellar.

And since all sites accept BTC, ETH, and LTC but not XLM, those “Big Three” are our top three picks.

But since you probably want to save on fees and deposit ASAP so you don’t miss out on any temporary high-value betting lines, Litecoin is what we recommend to most sports gamblers.