More volumes are being transacted on the Bitcoin (BTC) network than on the payments platform PayPal, according to blockchain intelligence company Blockdata.
Blockdata says that on average, the Bitcoin network transacted $187 billion more than PayPal per quarter this year. Even so, Bitcoin’s current transaction volume per quarter, which is worth $489 billion. is currently a fraction of the value processed by credit card companies Mastercard and Visa.
“If we look at the data, the Bitcoin network processed an estimated average of $489 billion per quarter in 2021.
To put that into perspective, PayPal processed an average of $302 billin per quarter in 2021, the Mastercard network processed $1.8 trillion per quarter or 260% more, and the Visa network processed an average of $3.2 trillion per quarter or 540% more.”
According to Blockdata, the growth of Bitcoin’s transaction volumes is “impressive” given that it is young relative to Mastercard.
“It’s impressive how Bitcoin, as a 12-year-old decentralized network, is 27% of the way in terms of one metric (volume processed) compared to Mastercard, a company founded in 1966, especially when you take into account that this is a decentralized movement.”
Blockdata says that Bitcoin could take about four decades to reach the transaction volume of Mastercard if the average yearly Bitcoin price were to be applied as a growth metric.
“Taking the average yearly Bitcoin price as a growth metric, it could take as long as 2060 for this to happen. However, if you account for the negative correlation with the average BTC per transaction decreasing, this timeframe could increase significantly.”
Using the BTC’s 2021 price growth as a metric, Blockdata could see Bitcoin reaching Mastercard’s transaction volume in about five years.
“Taking the current growth rate in 2021 as a metric, it could happen as soon as 2026.”
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Featured Image: Shutterstock/Tithi Luadthong
