Zynga Incorporates Digital Currency Bitcoin: Tops $1000
In recent days, social gaming company Zynga announced the adaptation of anonymous digital currency Bitcoin for some of its social games.
Zynga, which announced a few months ago it would not be going ahead as planned with efforts to offer real money online gambling in the US, does offer real money Web gambling in the United Kingdom and plans to expand this business in other parts of Europe. It wasn’t immediately clear whether Zynga would allow the currency to be used for its Web casino games. The social gaming network also offers what is still the biggest free-to-play poker game on the Net.
The real winner here appears to Bitcoin, which topped the $1000 mark on the Mt.Gox exchange as a result of the Zynga news.
Bitcoins first reached the $1,000 threshold in late November then topped off at a record $1,238 on Mt.Gox on Dec. 4. The rollercoaster ride continued from there after the digital currency fell to $640 on news that China’s largest online market for bitcoin would stop accepting deposits.
“Bitcoin has been remarkably resilient in the face of all the bad news out of China,” Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at ConvergEx Group, wrote in an e-mail to Bloomberg News. “The strength shows a continued interest, which is a very positive sign.”
Bitcoin was trading at close to $13 just one year ago.
- Aaron Goldstein, Gambling911.com
