USD Coin is widely regarded as one of the best stablecoins, and its growth has been phenomenal. Often 24-hour trading of the coin exceeds $50 billion.
For casino players who like crypto gambling but dislike the price swings associated with most coins, USDC is an excellent option.
The Gambling Crypt guide will spell out what the coin is, how it works, and the pros and cons of USDC casinos.
Ready to play? Dive into the action with selected USDC casinos below!
USD Coin Casinos Top List
USD Coin Gambling Guide
What Is USD Coin (USDC)?
More widely known as USDC, USD Coin is a stablecoin like Tether that is pegged to the US dollar on a 1:1 basis. Therefore, every USDC in circulation is backed up with a real $1 held by the company’s reserves in a mix of cash and US Treasury bonds.
The Centre Consortium oversees USDC and has two founding members. One of them is peer-to-peer payment services company Circle, while the other is the huge Coinbase crypto exchange.
Circle co-founders Jeremy Allaire and Sean Neville wrote their mission in creating USDC was this. “We believe that an open internet of value exchange can transform and integrate the world more deeply, eventually eliminating artificial economic borders and enabling a more efficient and inclusive global marketplace that connects every person on the planet.”
USDC launched on a limited basis in September 2018 with the tagline “digital money for the digital age”.
As well as being used for cashless transactions, the USD Coin is a ‘safe haven’ asset for traders when the crypto market is volatile.
If the price of Bitcoin is falling, for example, traders can exchange their Bitcoin for USDC until the market calms down or corrects itself – helping to hold the original value of their assets.
Other uses for the coin are allowing businesses to accept payments in digital assets and contributing to the growth of decentralised finance (de-fi) and gaming.
The main goal is to create an ecosystem where USDC is accepted by as many wallets, exchanges, service providers and dApps as possible.
How much is a USDC?
Because a USDC is pegged to the dollar, it trades for $1 all the time. Want 500 USDC? It will cost $500, etc.
Advantages of USD Coin Casinos
Speed and costs
Casino players can benefit from quick transfers and low costs – if they know what they are doing.
Because USDC is minted as an ERC-20 token, most transactions are done via the Ethereum blockchain. This is often bloated, slow and expensive. So you will never get the low or zero fees associated with coins like Dogecoin and Ripple.
But if you bridge your USDC to other blockchains, like Avalanche, Polygon, Solana or Binance Smart Chain, you can get low fees and quicker transfers. Many crypto casinos accept USDC via alternative blockchains.
The same goes for withdrawals. Those taken via the ETH blockchain can cost up to $30 in fees. Using the Binance Smart Chain blockchain takes these costs down to less than a dollar.
Don’t waste money on fees – get smart with your USDC and don’t use the Ethereum blockchain.
Transparency and trust
Stablecoins like USDC and Tether are huge players in the crypto markets but have frequently been targeted by those worried about transparency.
A stablecoin’s success is based on the pegged to dollar rate that, in theory, guarantees every 1 USDC will be able to be exchanged for $1 without any problems.
Unlike Tether, which has never been independently scrutinised, USDC is regularly audited by Grant Thornton, a leading global accounting firm. This ensures that the company does have reserves in cash and bonds to cover every USDC in circulation.
In addition, Circle and Coinbase have achieved much regulatory compliance, giving the coin further respect and certainty.
Tether was the dominant stablecoin, with a market share of 74%:16% in February 2021. This has now shrunk to a 45%:30% lead in February 2022 as USDC and other stablecoins eat into its success.
For casino players, USD Coin is a coin you can trust.
Ease of use
Using cryptocurrencies that have an exceptionally high value (like BTC or ETH) at casinos can be demanding. Normally, you are always playing in micro stakes of those coins.
It can be tough to track how much you are spending and winning. How many of us know how much 0.004 Bitcoin is, for example, off the top of our head?
Using a stablecoin like USDC makes it super easy to stay in control of your gambling and know precisely how much you are depositing, gambling and hopefully winning. There are also no nasty surprises with the value of your assets, as USDC doesn’t suffer from price fluctuations like other crypto coins.
Disadvantages of USD Coin Casinos
Less privacy
USDC isn’t a cryptocurrency in the original sense or ideas behind cryptocurrencies. And the involvement of well-funded, intuitionally compliant companies like Circle and Coinbase puts off some crypto purists.
If you want to tokenise or redeem your USD Coin via Circle, you must verify your identity and provide an active bank account. If you trade on Coinbase, you also need to verify your accounts.
This means your privacy is effectively non-existent. USDC should be considered more of a regular asset you need to prove who you are to own, rather than a secret crypto asset.
Centralised control
Unlike decentralised crypto coins, and as the opposite to coins like Monero, USD Coin project owners have the right to freeze funds and blacklist the address of any token holder they believe to be involved in illegal activities.
This control is the antithesis of original crypto thinking which was to avoid centralised control.
However, assuming you are not a criminal, this will not affect your gambling with USDC.
No chance to gain from market moves
Much of the thrill of crypto gambling is tied up with the knowledge that your crypto may be worth more when you withdraw it than when you deposit it. Sometimes you can win a lot of crypto and benefit from a decent price rise – double winnings!
Of course, with a stablecoin, those gains don’t exist. But on the other hand, you are unaffected by price drops, so it all depends on what kind of risk you like to take.