Comparing Networks and Values of Visa and MasterCard against Bitcoin as a Payment Channel

Given the acceptance of Bitcoin (BTCUSD) as an investment class based on the emergence of numerous ETFs and its rising importance, modeling Bitcoin price volatility becomes important to investment decisions and risk management. However, volatility is only a natural consequence of lower market liquidity. We have already witnessed crucial changes in this respect. Blockdata report shows that Bitcoin has processed 62% more transactions, in terms of dollar value, than PayPal in 2021. However, Mastercard (MA) and Visa (V) still remain the runaway leaders with respect to this metric. The new information comes as critics continue to discuss the viability of Bitcoin for a global level of payments.

The data was revealed by Blockdata intelligence group, which published a report on Nov 23 comparing Bitcoin with payment Mastercard and Visa. More recently, Bitcoin has also overtaken the giant payment technology company PayPal (PYPL) in terms of value transfer. Currently, the Bitcoin network has about $489 billion in process value for the quarter, while PayPal has a value of around $302 billion.

The two credit card giants reportedly processed about $1.8 trillion and $3.2 trillion in transactions in the previous quarter, respectively. Comparing the cost of the Bitcoin network to these two, it only accounts for 27% and 15% of the transaction volume processed by these giant fintech companies.

While this is an important milestone for the crypto industry, the value pales significantly compared to Mastercard and Visa, the other leading payment companies in the world.