Remember cryptocurrency?


While it’s far from dead, it has certainly fallen from its once-great heights. Back in November 2021, Bitcoin hit over $65,000, with Ethereum reaching a lesser but still impressive price of more than $4,600. Today, those numbers are around $30,000 and $1,900, respectively, and the SEC is currently making moves to regulate the market.


Although prices may have fallen, there are still plenty of people holding onto their crypto bags wondering what the hell they should be doing with their digital money. And a few of those hodlers have found an answer: hamster races.


Launched earlier this month, Hamsters.gg, a site which claims to host the “world’s first livestreamed hamster race,” now streams hamster races with relative regularity.



As reported by Decrypt.co, “At semi-regular intervals, four hamsters at a time are placed in a custom-engineered racing straightaways fitted with automated starting stall doors. Up to the start of a given race, gamblers with connected crypto wallets can bet any sum of Binance USD (BUSD) stablecoin on a competing race hamster of their choosing.”


So do the hamsters actually race? It’s a mixed bag, says author Sander Lutz.


“In most races, the hamsters tend to lie in place on their stomachs for a few minutes, until a sole victor ambles forward over the finish line,” Lutz details.



There are, of course, a few kinks that still need to be worked out, the occasional lack of hamster movement notwithstanding. Lutz mentions that gambling licenses need to be acquired before one can run a gambling operation in many countries (“We are definitely going to make sure we’re legal,” the pseudonymous core developer Dani told Decrypt.co).


Also, and crucially, the hamster races are pre-recorded and streamed later, leaving open the possibility that a developer with knowledge of the outcome could dominate any open betting market.


Regardless, the races continue to be streamed on the site, with streams regularly pulling in triple-digit live viewership. And for those who aren’t interested in hamsters, snail, rat, and rabbit races may soon be on the horizon, too.