According to a new measure developed by Visa Inc., over 90% of stablecoin transactions may not be from real users, indicating that these digital tokens might not yet be widely used for payments.
Visa partnered with Allium Labs to create a dashboard that filters out transactions by bots and big traders, focusing only on those made by actual people. Visa found that out of $2.2 trillion in transactions in April, only $149 billion were genuine payments.
This challenges the idea that stablecoins, which are tied to assets like the dollar, are ready to revolutionize the $150 trillion payments industry.
PayPal and Stripe, among the fintech giants getting involved in stablecoins, there’s still work needed to make them more user-friendly and reliable.
Executive general manager for EMEA at payments platform Airwallex, Pranav Sood, said about stablecoin, “That’s not to say that they don’t have long-term potential, because I think they do. But the short-term and the mid-term focus needs to be on making sure that existing rails work much better.”
Understanding the true value of crypto activity has always been tough. For example, Glassnode estimated that during the 2021 crypto boom, the reported $3 trillion market circulation was likely closer to $875 billion.
One problem with stablecoins is double-counting transactions, depending on where funds are transferred. For instance, converting $100 from one stablecoin to another might show up as $200 in total volume.
Visa itself, handling over $12 trillion in transactions last year, could lose out if stablecoins become widespread. Analysts predict the total value of stablecoins could soar to $2.8 trillion by 2028, but for now, there’s still skepticism from users and businesses about their ease of use.
Sood added, “It’s a really significant barrier to overcome. It’s important to remember that in the US people, are still using checks to pay for somewhere between 40% and 60% of business payments, which gives you a sense of where the market really is in terms of technological adoption.”
Also Read: MakerDAO Reveals New Stablecoin & Governance Token
