1.3 trillion US dollars! Bitcoin's annual transaction volume exceeds PayPal again

For the second time since its inception, Bitcoin's annual transaction volume has surpassed that of online payment giant PayPal.

According to statistics, the transaction volume of the Bitcoin network reached 1.3 trillion US dollars in 2018. During the same period, PayPal's transaction volume was 578.65 billion US dollars. This is the second time that Bitcoin has surpassed PayPal in terms of transaction volume. In 2017, Bitcoin's transaction volume exceeded PayPal by 543.52 billion US dollars.

The rise of the remittance market

Although Bitcoin and PayPal have performed differently over the past year, both have benefited from the remittance market. According to the World Bank, cross-border transactions grew 10% in 2018 to $689 billion. The reason for this trend is the increase in the number of people moving abroad, which has led to an increase in the use of services such as PayPal and Bitcoin.

However, Bitcoin's trading volume does not come solely from low-cost cross-border transactions. Most of Bitcoin's trading volume comes from traders. According to research firm Diar, the cryptocurrency market hit a record high in trading volume in 2018, with Bitcoin dominating.

It is unclear how many users use Bitcoin for cross-border remittances, especially as speculative traders also use it. PayPal focuses on payments and remittance services, while Bitcoin is more of a multi-faceted asset.

The World Bank predicts that the remittance market will grow by 3.7% to $715 billion in 2019. This means that the transaction volume of services such as PayPal will continue to rise in the coming quarters. Bitcoin is expected to attract a lot of institutional investment after the launch of derivatives platforms such as Bakkt. In addition, once the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approves the Bitcoin ETF in the second quarter of this year, the popularity of this cryptocurrency will be greatly improved.

Bitcoin – the remittance currency

Interestingly, the more popular Bitcoin becomes for investment purposes, the less attractive it becomes for users who need to send money, because such groups tend to use assets with relatively stable prices. This is one of the reasons why services such as PayPal still exist.

However, there are some projects in the cryptocurrency space that hope to address the volatility issue while retaining the low-cost trading model of cryptocurrencies. For example, social media giant Facebook plans to issue a stablecoin in India.

Morgan Creek founder Anthony Pompliano said:

If Facebook does launch a stablecoin as reported, it would quickly become the most frequently used product in the cryptocurrency space.

Just recently, banking giants JPMorgan Chase and Mizuho Bank also launched their own stablecoins, aiming to enable low-cost cross-border bank transfers and payments.