For those new to the crypto game – particularly those who are also thinking about signing up with a reputable prepaid online gambling site – there’s always an issue buying in for the first time.
If you’ve never bought cryptocurrency before, the process for doing so is time-consuming and – let’s be real, here – pretty darn annoying.
In fact, the whole thing puts a lot of potential crypto buyers off the whole idea. And that’s a shame.
The biggest hurdle, of course, is the fact that the major exchanges require you to go through significant Know Your Customer (KYC) account verification.
While this doesn’t always take too long (often requiring just a few minutes if you have all your credentials on hand), it can take up to a couple of days in rare cases.
But beyond that, once you set up your account, link your banking information (checking account, debit card, credit card, etc.), and buy the crypto coin or coins of your choice, you’ll have to submit to a lengthy waiting period of up to 10 days before you’ll be able to send your crypto off the exchange itself.
This off-platform sending restriction for new crypto users isn’t arbitrary, either. It’s an FTC/SEC compliance requirement for exchanges to “guarantee” enough liquidity to back the assets you purchase.
Of course, if you have a P2P account – such as PayPal or Venmo – you can also buy crypto through those apps, albeit the selection is limited.
At this time, both services are limited to Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Litecoin (LTC), and Ethereum (ETH).
Meanwhile, gambling-friendly altcoins like Cardano (ADA), Chainlink (LINK), Dogecoin (DOGE), and others supported by many of the best sites can only be purchased through the exchanges themselves, not through PayPal crypto or Venmo crypto portals.
But even if you’re 100% ready for prepaid Bitcoin gambling or prepaid Litecoin betting (the latter being our favorite method this side of Cardano), you still can’t use these P2P platforms directly.
PayPal and Venmo do not allow for off-platform sending at all. You can only buy and sell the stuff within the apps. That’s far from helpful, to say the least.
That being said, Cash App actually does allow users to buy crypto and send it to external wallets (i.e. to legal prepaid gambling sites) without any waiting, but Cash App only supports BTC.
For many gamblers, that’s fine, as Bitcoin is still the crypto of choice for pretty much everyone, especially those getting into the alternative currency market for the first time.
But Bitcoin fees and transaction times leave something to be desired, which is why many bettors prefer altcoins that send faster and cost less to use.
Long story short: If you want to buy crypto with which to make online gambling deposits, you can’t really use PayPal or Venmo, and Cash App is limited to BTC only.
(Zelle users can quickly bypass exchange wait times to make crypto deposits by going the Zelle-to-Bitcoin route, though like Cash App, Zelle only supports Bitcoin purchases through the LocalBitcoins exchange, and there’s a heavy premium on the Bitcoin price when using LocalBitcoins.)
However, in a strange but welcome twist, there’s a new way to buy crypto with PayPal that doesn’t limit you. That’s because PayPal has partnered with Coinbase as an official payment option!
To be 100% clear, this avenue does not allow you to bypass the aforementioned exchange wait times, but it does make buying in easier and more straightforward for those who prefer to use PayPal to handle their crypto purchases.
It’s not game-changing by any means, but it is another option that should serve to expand the accessibility of crypto to millions of users (and tens of thousands of potential online gamblers looking to maximize their deposit bonuses, minimize their fees, and claim same-day payouts).
To buy crypto with PayPal through Coinbase, you still need to set up a Coinbase account, go through their KYC process, and abide by their new user waiting period (5-10 days).
And, naturally, you’ll also need a PayPal account.
But if you already have the latter, you have no need to link your Coinbase account to your bank account or any other card-based payment option. Instead, just “check out” using PayPal as you might on any other site. That’s the real convenience, here.
So while this new PayPal crypto option doesn’t provide too many shortcuts for the online gambler (check out our recent article on Coinify gambling deposits for an alternative option that does let you skip past any lengthy exchange restrictions), it gives a large number of new cryptocurrency users a quick(er) way to get started overall.
And hopefully, with enough adoption, this new strategy by PayPal (Venmo support for the same is slated to launch by the end of the year) will eventually shorten or eliminate off-platform sending restrictions in a meaningful way.
The crypto ecosystem is barely built out, after all, and PayPal support – even in this minimalistic way – should help further establish cryptocurrency in the mainstream.