The crypto poker room has revealed almost $17 million in customer deposits that are held in segregated wallets.
Crypto-only poker room CoinPoker published a Proof of Reserves this week to show that player funds have been held separate to operating funds.
This is a standard practice for crypto exchanges like Binance, and perhaps a first for online poker, given crypto is still not a significant part of the way the game is funded.
They revealed that $16,196,887 in customer deposits were held, with around $16,990,000 held in total, meaning additional reserves (around 104.9% of deposits) were being held. This is separate to CoinPoker’s corporate holdings.
In 2024 this is a necessity in online poker, to know where player funds are held. One of the biggest scandals in online poker was Black Friday in 2011, when it was revealed that customer deposits were not segregated at Full Tilt Poker.
Major operators like PokerStars, 888poker, Unibet and GGPoker all keep customer deposits in a separate segregated account.
It was a big week for CoinPoker, as last night it was announced that Patrick Leonard was joining them as an ambassador with a focus on security:
I’ve joined @CoinPoker_OFF as a strategic ambassador with the mission of helping the new leadership group create the safest & best online poker room in the world. Here is a thread about my intentions and how I want you to hold me accountable. I’ll call this thread “I will”
— Patrick Leonard 🫡 (@padspoker) August 8, 2024
The online poker industry is a long way off from integrating cryptocurrency into their platforms, and even longer way off from mainstream recreational players feeling confident using it as a deposit method. CoinPoker publishing Proof of Reserves is a small step forward for the prospects of crypto adoption in poker.
Would you be nervous using crypto for poker? Let us know in the comments:
