The Crypto Convergence: Welcoming The GR8 Tech Era Of Payments

Leaders of the iGaming market, GR8 Tech, have gone from strength to strength since launching in January 2023, writes Lauren Harrison.

Now entering its third year of operations, the company is turning its attention to payments with the launch of its first multi-currency wallet – a development designed to allow players to switch currencies instantly and remove long-standing crypto-fiat barriers.

According to financial analysts, players place around US$4.2 trillion (£3.1tn) in bets annually, while operators process approximately US$3.8 trillion (£2.8tn) in payouts each year – and with the 2026 World Cup just around the corner, it has never been more important for operators to have their payment infrastructure in order.

For players, payment speed and currency availability are among the most decisive factors when choosing where to play. Slow transfers also remain one of the leading causes of churn, with research showing that a positive payment experience is a key driver of long-term retention, causing some 82 percent of players to stick around.

To explore how GR8 Tech’s new payment technology is evolving to meet the demands of both fiat and crypto bettors, iGamingFuture Head of Content Curtis Roach spoke with GR8 Tech’s Chief Product Officer, Denys Parkhomenko.

Curtis began by asking:

Traditional payment systems often slow operators down with complex onboarding, compliance friction, and delayed settlements. How do you envision GR8 Tech’s flexible multi-currency wallet redefining the speed and fluidity of player financial interactions going forward?

“Players can already move funds with average settlement times of 10–30 minutes instead of the usual three-to-five business days. They can deposit, play, and withdraw in their preferred currency without opening separate wallets or repeating verification, so financial interactions feel as fluid as the gameplay.

“For operators, the bigger shift is about operational control. You’re no longer at the mercy of third-party payment providers who can delay your launch, freeze accounts during routine checks, or experience outages that cost you revenue. 

“Operators simply need to activate crypto inside our platform and go live – no waiting for PSP onboarding, no merchant account applications for every market, no dependency on external infrastructure that can fail. 

“With a 0.5 percent transaction fee, no chargebacks and unified wallet reporting across fiat and crypto, you strip out payment friction and gain the stability to operate 24/7 without interruption.”

Many operators struggle with players abandoning deposits when their preferred currency isn’t available or supported. How does your instant currency-switching wallet address this drop-off challenge? And what strategic advantage does this create for operators targeting multi-market growth?

“It’s a problem we see every day, and it’s exactly what Crypto Turnkey’s multi-wallet is built to solve.

“With GR8 Tech, a player never hits a dead-end just because their currency isn’t there. 

“They can hold BTC, ETH, USDT, USDC, USD, EUR and more in a single account, and switch balances instantly without page reloads, new wallets or extra KYC. If a player needs EUR for a deposit but has their balance in USDT, they switch currencies in one click and complete the deposit instead of hitting a wall and leaving.

“For operators, this creates a very tangible strategic edge in multi-market growth: You launch one wallet architecture globally and localise it via configuration. No need for custom payment work. 

“You cover both fiat and crypto audiences, reduce drop-off at the cashier and gain higher retention and revenue per player, while our UBO integration, per-currency tracking and real-time foreign exchange keep compliance and reporting under control as you scale.

“This matters even more when you look at where revenue actually comes from. 

“VIPs, who on average represent less than one percent of the player base, generated 47 percent of platform turnover for our clients across both sports and casino last year. 

“And their payment behaviour is shifting. They want crypto for the speed, privacy and unlimited transaction sizes. If crypto isn’t in your payment stack, you’re essentially adding friction to the deposit flow for the player segment that generates a huge chunk of your revenue. 

“That’s a competitive disadvantage you can’t afford to have.”

One major pain-point in crypto adoption is game compatibility, as many suppliers simply don’t support digital assets. How will your built-in currency exchange layer allow players to use crypto seamlessly even in non-crypto games, and what does this mean for future content strategy?

“We solve that by decoupling the player’s currency from the game’s currency. 

“Our built-in exchange layer lets a player deposit and hold crypto and fiat in their GR8 Tech wallet. When they open a non-crypto game, the platform automatically converts the stake into the game’s supported currency and settles the outcome back to the player’s chosen currency.

“From the player’s point of view, they’re playing in crypto everywhere; the game only ever sees a supported currency.”

Security, transparency and instant settlement are well-known crypto benefits but operators still struggle with operational integration and compliance readiness. What innovations has GR8 Tech introduced to help operators transition from traditional, friction-heavy payment flows to a more agile, crypto-driven framework?

“At GR8 Tech, we’ve focused on three things.

“First, we made crypto a configurable payment layer instead of a separate project: Operators can switch on multi-wallet and crypto without rebuilding the cashier or relying on external PSPs. 

“Our exchange lets players use crypto even when games only support fiat. That removes the dependency on third-party payment infrastructure that typically creates bottlenecks and operational risks.

“Second, we built compliance into that same layer, so KYC, responsible gambling, UBO, per-currency monitoring and our currency register/rate manager all give risk and finance one clear view of fiat and digital assets.

“Third, we kept the transition low-risk with backward-compatible wallet migration, so brands can move from a mono-wallet, high-fee setup to a crypto-driven model step-by-step.

“Our goal is to make our clients champions. And these three things, when combined, enable them to operate with great precision, effectiveness and ease.

“Meet us at ICE Barcelona and experience it for yourself.”

Editor’s Note:

This is payments without friction, and it represents the next level of innovation, solving one of the industry’s biggest current pain points by converging crypto and fiat gaming and payments.

Not only does the service offer unparalleled transaction speeds, it also allows operators to take control, repositioning payments as a competitive advantage and preventing costly launch delays common to third-party payment providers, such as frozen accounts or slow compliance checks.

The ability to seamlessly switch between crypto and fiat, with no consumer or operator action necessary, is until now unheard of and it opens the doors to a huge market of games and players for consumers and operators alike.  

The single payments, compliant architecture is a breakthrough product that removes barriers to crypto adoption in mainstream iGaming and makes payments as fluid as the gameplay for players. 

This is a very welcome convergence and a GR8 way to kick off the new year!