Elton Dimech, Managing Director, Payhound talks about the future of cryptocurrency in iGaming.

There’s a lot of noise around crypto in the iGaming space. Depending on who you ask, it’s either the future of payments or a regulatory discussion. The reality is far more grounded. We’re not seeing a revolution. We’re seeing infrastructure quietly taking shape behind the scenes. And it’s happening for one reason: it works.

The early days of crypto in gaming were mostly driven by curiosity or brand differentiation. Accepting Bitcoin used to be a marketing badge, but the market has been maturing. Now it’s about solving actual operational issues: how to pay people faster, how to reduce settlement costs, how to navigate cross-border flows without making the finance team chase wires.

The shift from potential to practical

When we meet operators, they’re not looking for hype, they want certainty. They want tools that work under pressure and integrate seamlessly into their existing systems. That’s where crypto is starting to show real value.

At Payhound, we work with clients who move large volumes daily, including deposits, withdrawals, affiliate commissions, and B2B payments. For them, crypto is not about decentralisation or ideology. It’s about performance. They need to send value across borders, minimise FX exposure, and keep liquidity moving.

That’s what we enable. The Payhound platform offers real-time crypto-to-fiat conversion, locked-rate invoicing, and instant settlement. Such solutions may not be considered to be a breakthrough anymore, but it’s definitely  been built to make financial operations smoother for regulated businesses.

“The future of payments in gaming is not about disruption. It’s about eliminating friction. Crypto happens to be the right tool for that job right now.”

What changed? Regulation caught up.

Let’s be clear. Crypto’s biggest barrier to adoption in gaming was never technical, it was regulatory. Operators didn’t want uncertainty, and rightly so. However, over the last two years, that uncertainty has been steadily removed.

The EU’s MiCA framework has introduced licensing and operational guidelines. Malta, where Payhound is based, had already built a legal foundation through its Virtual Financial Assets (VFA) Act. We were one of the first licensed VFA service providers under the MFSA’s Class 3 licence. We welcomed that process, because when you’re building financial infrastructure, being regulated isn’t a burden, it’s considered to be a necessity. It’s what made us reputable and trustworthy with our clients. 

Now, under MiCA, that clarity extends across the EU. Operators can work with licensed crypto payment processors and know that what they’re doing is fully compliant. They can offer crypto deposit options or settle invoices in stablecoins without wondering if they’re creating legal exposure.

This is what moves the conversation from “is crypto allowed?” to “how can it help us operate better?”

Players expect options. Operators expect control.

Players want flexibility. They want to deposit with what’s in their wallet, be it euros, USDC, or ETH, and just start playing. They expect speed. They don’t want delays with withdrawals. And they definitely don’t want to be stuck in a queue while a support agent verifies a wire transfer.

But operators need more than speed. They need control. That means knowing the source of funds, meeting KYC requirements, protecting against volatility, and ensuring accounting and reconciliation are airtight.

We’ve built Payhound to serve both sides of that equation. Our system allows a player to deposit crypto and the operator to receive fiat, without having anything to do with the digital asset directly. If an operator prefers to hold stablecoins, we enable that too. Everything is configurable,  monitored and auditable.

“We’re not here to push crypto onto operators. We’re here to make it usable on their terms, within the frameworks they already follow.”

Affiliates are driving demand from the bottom up

There’s another piece of this story that doesn’t get enough attention: affiliates.

Affiliates have always been quick to adapt, and in the crypto space, they’re ahead of the curve. They’re already running campaigns around crypto casinos whilst they’re getting paid in stablecoins. They’re also asking operators for faster, cheaper ways to settle commissions.

In many cases, crypto is the easiest way to pay them, especially when they’re based across multiple markets and traditional banking channels create delays or added costs.

At Payhound, we work with operators who now settle affiliate payouts on a daily or weekly basis—something that would have been unthinkable using legacy systems. The affiliates get paid faster. The operators stay lean. Everyone wins.

From deposits to full-stack finance

Crypto in iGaming used to be mostly about deposits. That’s still important, but what we’re seeing now is much deeper. Crypto is being used across the financial stack: partner payments, liquidity transfers between platforms, and cross-border settlements.

For example, some of Payhound’s clients make use of the in-house OTC desk to manage high-volume conversions when moving funds between different business entities. Others use our invoicing tools to lock crypto rates and bill providers in stablecoin terms. This reduces exposure to currency fluctuation and makes reconciliation easier.

It’s not about crypto for the sake of crypto. It’s about removing unnecessary steps, reducing time-to-cash, and giving finance teams more visibility.

It has to feel invisible

The goal is not for crypto to be noticed. The goal is for it to disappear into the background. Just like players don’t think about whether Visa or Mastercard is processing their payment, they shouldn’t have to think about which blockchain is behind their deposit.

Likewise, the operator’s CFO shouldn’t have to call their CTO every time a crypto payment comes in. These flows should just work. 

“The best financial technology is the kind that gets out of the way. Crypto doesn’t need to be exciting. It needs to be reliable.”

Where we go from here

There’s still work to do. Onboarding operators into crypto requires education, not just integration. Finance teams need clarity, compliance teams need assurances, and the tech team needs to know it won’t create more overhead.

That’s our job at Payhound. We take care of the complexity – including  volatility, conversions, banking flows, regulatory reporting, so that our partners don’t have to become crypto experts overnight.

We’ve worked hard to build trust with some of the most regulated gaming businesses in Europe. We’ve learned that success in this space isn’t just about speed, it’s about precision. It’s about proving every step works the way it should.

Final thought

Crypto payments in iGaming has become a tool rather than a trend, and when used correctly, it creates speed, certainty, and reach: without compromising security or oversight.

The operators who treat it as a financial layer, will be the ones who quietly gain ground. Let’s build from there.