Paysafe launches crypto payments for US gambling sector

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2026/01/20: ICE: Paysafe’s Zak Cutler prepares the ground for greater crypto adoption over next two years 2026/01/09: Indonesia reports shift in online gambling deposits to QR payments and crypto 2025/01/08: Paysafe secures license to enter Brazil’s igaming market 2025/05/28: Boss of payments platform Papara arrested in Turkey in relation to illegal gambling

The Backstory

Crypto moves from fringe to feature

Paysafe’s push into crypto-enabled deposits for regulated U.S. sportsbooks did not come out of nowhere. The company has been telegraphing the shift since ICE 2026 in Barcelona, where President of Global Gaming Zak Cutler said major operators were preparing to add crypto rails as customer demand rose. In an interview at the show, he called wider integration by licensed brands “inevitable” over the next 12 to 24 months, signaling that product road maps were already in motion. That assessment, captured in Paysafe’s Zak Cutler prepares the ground for greater crypto adoption, framed crypto not as a speculative add-on but as a channel operators will need to meet players where they are.

The calculus is simple: gamblers who hold digital assets want to use them. Paysafe has argued those customers overlap heavily with online bettors and that operators risk losing wallet share when they cannot convert that interest into compliant deposits. The company’s strategy also leans on its scale in cards, wallets, and alternative methods. Cutler described the goal as one platform that can localize and route payments efficiently, then settle in fiat. Crypto fits that playbook, especially as operators prioritize the basics customers say they value most, such as speed of payout and trust, themes that featured prominently in Paysafe’s World Cup research cited at ICE.

The launch of a crypto on-ramp aimed at regulated brands marks a notable pivot point: crypto flows that have long circulated in offshore books are being courted by licensed operators who believe they can capture demand without compromising compliance.

Rules of the road still write the timeline

Policy will determine how quickly crypto deposits become common in the U.S. market. Wyoming opened the door early, adopting a permissive framework in 2021 that allows “digital, crypto, and virtual currencies” for wagers. The measure, Wyoming HB 133, remains an outlier, yet it serves as a live test for what crypto settlement can look like under state oversight.

Elsewhere, regulators have taken incremental steps. Virginia and Colorado allow conversions of crypto into fiat for deposits rather than accepting crypto as a wagering currency. Operators are also experimenting. DraftKings has flagged plans for a crypto-to-cash product in Illinois, Kentucky, New Hampshire and Vermont, an approach that keeps the betting system in dollars while meeting crypto-native users halfway.

That middle-ground model mirrors how Paysafe structured its new product: players connect a wallet, funds are verified, then converted to U.S. dollars on the way in. The design aims to navigate know-your-customer and anti-money-laundering rules while reducing operational friction for sportsbooks that want crypto liquidity without taking custody or price risk. The result is a policy-paced rollout. Adoption moves fastest where rules are clear, and it pauses where uncertainty could jeopardize licenses.

Compliance lessons from markets under pressure

The stakes of getting crypto payments wrong are visible overseas. Indonesia’s financial intelligence unit reported a drop in total online gambling deposits last year but flagged a marked shift in how payment flows are structured. Regulators said deposits increasingly used the national QR system, QRIS, along with crypto as a channel to separate deposit and withdrawal paths and evade tracing. The analysis, detailed in Indonesia reports shift in online gambling deposits to QR payments and crypto, underscores how fast payment behavior adapts when enforcement intensifies.

Turkey offers a more punitive case study. Authorities arrested the owner of local fintech Papara and a dozen others in a sweeping probe into illegal gambling facilitation. Investigators said the platform processed gambling transactions, moved funds across hundreds of bank accounts and into crypto wallets, and profited at each step. They seized assets ranging from vehicles to real estate. The action, chronicled in Boss of payments platform Papara arrested in Turkey in relation to illegal gambling, signals a tougher global posture against payments firms seen as enabling illicit betting.

For regulated U.S. operators and their vendors, the message is clear: crypto rails can improve speed and customer conversion, but they also invite sharper scrutiny. Systems must prove they can authenticate sources of funds, monitor flows and settle cleanly into fiat books. Any gap between product design and control design can become a business risk fast.

Brazil shows how localization drives scale

If the U.S. provides the compliance crucible, Brazil is shaping up as the growth laboratory. Paysafe recently secured a Payment Institution license from the Central Bank of Brazil, clearing it to support igaming operators in a market forecast to reach $34 billion in betting turnover by 2028. The license, outlined in Paysafe secures license to enter Brazil’s igaming market, lets the company bring digital wallets Skrill and Neteller and tap SafetyPay’s gateways for instant bank transfers through Pix, the country’s ubiquitous instant-payment network.

That fit reinforces a point Cutler stressed at ICE: localized methods are often the difference between casual interest and active play. In Brazil, Pix is a default. In the U.S., debit, ACH and card rails anchor the stack, but alternative methods can swell during peak events. Crypto joins that list as a supplemental rail that meets a specific, growing cohort. The product challenge is orchestration — ensuring every method sits behind one risk engine and settlement layer operators trust.

Brazil’s regulatory posture also hints at how new markets may blend traditional and alternative rails from day one. As local rules mature, providers that can toggle between fiat, instant bank transfers and crypto-funded deposits while keeping funds onshore and auditable will have the inside track.

Politics, prediction markets and mainstream visibility

Crypto’s march into betting-adjacent products is getting a political tailwind. Trump Media & Technology Group and Crypto.com plan to launch a prediction market on Truth Social that lets users trade on elections, inflation prints and sports outcomes. The effort, described in Trump Media partners with Crypto.com to offer prediction market, would route contracts through a CFTC-registered exchange and follows a surge in volume on platforms like Polymarket and Kalshi.

For the gambling industry, the signal is twofold. First, real-money event markets are inching closer to mainstream distribution, creating new on-ramps for speculative retail behavior that looks and feels like betting. Second, the tie-up deepens the cultural and political salience of crypto as a transactional layer. As prediction products garner attention, operators and payment firms will face more questions about how they handle crypto-funded activity, from treasury to disclosures to customer safeguards.

The cumulative effect is that crypto is no longer a niche discussion in gaming. It is a practical question of product design, compliance readiness and market access. Paysafe’s rollout in the U.S., paired with its Brazil license and operator conversations, suggests the industry is moving from exploration to execution. The exact pace will be set by state rules, but the direction looks set: meet crypto users on regulated turf, convert deposits cleanly into dollars and keep the risk controls tight.