Based on HashNews, Bitcoin and USD stablecoins are becoming a global alternative for cross-border fund transfers, especially in scenarios that do not rely on banks or card networks. In Q4, Bitcoin settled $6.9 trillion in payments over 90 days, matching or exceeding Visa and Mastercard combined. During the same period, Visa processed $425 billion and Mastercard $263 billion, totaling $6.88 trillion. Despite some activity shifting to exchanges and brokers, Bitcoin and stablecoins remain dominant in on-chain settlements. Excluding internal transfers between the same entity addresses, Bitcoin's 'economic' settlements reached nearly $870 billion per quarter, highlighting its role as a global settlement network. However, compared to Visa's daily $39.7 billion or Mastercard's $26.2 billion in consumer transaction volumes, Bitcoin is still mainly used for trading, remittances, and investments, with low global merchant adoption. Only 20,599 merchants accept Bitcoin, while Visa has 175 million. Stablecoins, with their fixed prices, low fees, and 24/7 availability, offer another global value transfer option, averaging $225 billion in daily transfers. However, about 70% of these transactions are linked to automated trading bots, with only 20% representing genuine non-bot activity. Researchers emphasize the importance of distinguishing organic transactions from bot activity to accurately assess stablecoin payment adoption.
Bitcoin Settlement Volume Reaches Visa Scale, But Mostly for Large Transactions
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