Key facts:
The annual value traded on the Bitcoin network grew 469% in 2021, compared to 15% for Visa.
In 2021, more than 95 million transactions were processed in Bitcoin.
The annual volume of Bitcoin transactions in 2021 reached USD 13.1 billion, which exceeded the total value of transactions processed by Visa in the same period, which was USD 13 billion. Likewise, the value of Bitcoin transactions was 20% higher than payments made with Visa, according to the Ark report. Big Ideas 2022.
Ark points at your report that the annual volume transferred on the bitcoin network grew from USD 2.3 billion in 2020 to USD 13.1 billion in 2021, which represents an increase of 469% of the annual volume.
According to Visa’s operational summary between 2019 and 2021, the growth of the total annual volume of transactions is much less pronounced. Visa reports a total volume of USD 11.3 billion for 2020, which increased to USD 13.0 billion last year, representing an increase of only 15%.
The table and graph below summarize the information on Bitcoin transactions in 2020 and 2021. The average daily volume is specified there, which was $35.9 billion for Bitcoinwhich is slightly higher than Visa’s daily average of about $35.6 billion.
As for the value of the average bitcoin transaction in 2021, this was USD 136,555, which allows estimating the number of transactions for that year. In 2021, just over 95 million transactions were processed in Bitcoin.
Innovation and access vs. speed
While the total value of transactions processed by Visa in 2021 is very close to that of BTC in that year, when only payments are considered, Bitcoin comes out with an appreciable advantage. Of the USD 13 billion processed by Visa in 2021, USD 10.4 billion correspond to payments made on that network. Ark highlights that, in percentage terms, the annual volume of transactions in that year exceeds the total payments made in the Visa network by 20%, as seen in the graph above.
In the following table of the results offered by Visa, it is verified that the number of annual transactions in that network is much higher than that processed in the Bitcoin network: 164,700 million. From this it can be inferred that the value of the average transaction in the Visa network is 19.28 dollars.
It is thus verified that while in the Bitcoin network it is normal for transactions to be made for thousands of dollars, the average of the transaction in Visa is small, since it corresponds to day-to-day payments. As bitcoin adoption grows, everyday bitcoin payments will become more frequent and their average value will tend to decrease.
The number of transactions in the Bitcoin network compared to those processed by Visa, also reflects the speed of the latter compared to those that are executed in the bitcoin blockchain. In contrast to this handicap, Broadhaven Ventures co-founder and partner Michael Sidgmore highlighted in an interview with Bloomberg TV that access to bitcoin payments may be more important than speed, since a large number of users from emerging countries are starting to receive remittances through bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
“Bitcoin’s main goal is not to go faster, but to unlock access to the economy and financial services, both for individuals and businesses. Particularly in emerging countries, for example in Latin America and Africa, there are significant use cases around bitcoin remittances,” Sisgmore notes.
It is significant that Bitcoin, with a little more than 13 years of operation, has been able to overtake Visa in annual volume traded, compared to the 64 years that have passed since Visa was founded. It is also well known that Bitcoin transactions, as they do not depend on a trusted third party and do not have time restrictions, can be carried out without censorship and sent anywhere in the world in minutes.