A report from Blockdata shows that Bitcoin has processed 62% more transactions (in dollars) than PayPal so far in 2021. However, Mastercard and Visa still lead in this regard.

Bitcoin is showing more signs of adoption and growth. Bitcoin processes more transactions than PayPal as critics continue to debate BTC’s viability in global payments.

Bitcoin vs Paypal vs Mastercard vs Visa trading volume. Source: block data

Blockdata mainly focused its coverage on whether Bitcoin could compete with Mastercard and Visa and came up with a positive yes, but warned that it won’t happen overnight.

In 2021, the Bitcoin network was processing about $ 489 billion per quarter. PayPal processes $ 302 billion per quarter, while Mastercard and Visa are well ahead at $ 1.8 trillion and $ 3.2 trillion per quarter, respectively.

So it’s clear that Bitcoin still has a long way to go before it can potentially threaten Mastercard and Visa, but the competition could come sooner than you think. Anyway, Bitcoin has reached its current level of adoption in just 12 years, starting with a handful of cypherpunks and enthusiasts.

The Blockdata report refers to the two payment networks as a “spending technology” while the Bitcoin network is a “saving technology”.

Finally, a number of factors are mentioned that could push Bitcoin to reach levels of Mastercard and Visa processing, including the number of transactions, the average amount of BTC per transaction, and the price of Bitcoin itself. But most importantly of course, whether the Bitcoin network can handle such a large volume of transactions.

Bitcoin’s ability to process more transactions depends on the implementation and improvement of scaling solutions. The most important solution at the moment is the Lightning Network, which reached record capacity at the end of September 2021. At the same time, this period also saw a record number of nodes and payment channels.

Arcane Research released a State of Lightning report that estimates the Lightning Network will grow to 800 million users by 2030.

With the power of Lightning, the Bitcoin network could certainly be on the way to outperform Mastercard and Visa. However, it takes time to be successful.

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