Bitcoin Exceeds PayPal in Annual Transaction Vol at $1.3T

Bitcoin, the leading cryptocurrency on the market, has outshined the online payment processing bull PayPal in the total number of yearly transactions. From the data given by Global Statistics portal, Bitcoin (BTC) had $1.3 trillion worth of transaction volume last year and PayPal had $578.65 billion.

In 2017, Bitcoin was seen surpassing the yearly transaction value processed by PayPal when over $1 trillion worth of BTC transactions were achieved, hence exceeding PayPal by around $543.5 billion, according to the Global Statistics - data aggregator service.   

   

Bitcoin Booms Amidst Bear Market   

After the biggest bull run in digital currency at the beginning of last year, the rest of the year was characterized by a bearish market which saw BTC lose almost 85% of its value from its record high prices way back in December 2017. Notwithstanding the tough times, BTC appears to be increasing in momentum and adoption.   

In the face of the increasing transaction differences between the two significant innovative technological initiatives, both benefited from a booming remittances sector. As per the World Bank data, the remittance market has enlarged by more than 10% from 2017 – 2018 by $689 billion. BTC, albeit, added the extra edge over PayPal because of the increase in the transactions across bullish digital currency exchanges according to Diar - a research company.   

   

The World Bank also predicts a 3.7% growth rate this year for the remittance sector which indicates that services like those provided by PayPal will register growth while Bitcoin could gain more adoption as international payments become more predominant.   

This year, cryptocurrencies are believed to be getting more adoption following the roll out of a variety of products in the field. For example, the sector is greatly expecting the roll out of the first U.S.-based Bitcoin exchange-traded fund and roll out Intercontinental Exchange’s Bakkt Bitcoin futures platform. These products are believed to cause liquidity into the BTC markets, hence cumulating the adoption of BTC and cryptocurrencies by extension.   

Projects to Resolve Bitcoin Volatility Issue  

However, in other parts of the digital currency industry, projects are endeavoring to resolve the volatility issue. Simultaneously, they are retaining the cheaper-transaction status attached to virtual assets. Social media bull Facebook, for example, proclaimed that it would introduce a stablecoin for remittance.   

“If Facebook launches the stablecoin they are reportedly building, it will quickly become the most used product in crypto,” said Anthony Pompliano, founder and partner at Morgan Creek Digital Assets.

If Facebook launches the stablecoin they are reportedly building, it will quickly become the most used product in crypto.

WhatsApp has over 200,000,000 users in India alone.

The Indian government has been fighting crypto too so things are about to get very, very interesting...
— Pomp (@APompliano) December 21, 2018

 

According to a senior analyst at Fundstrat, Tom Lee, BTC is expected to end 2019 above the $3,900 price level even if the ETF is not approved, as reported by Coinidol.