Visa’s finding challenges stablecoin proponents’ argument that the tokens, pegged to an asset like the dollar, are poised to revolutionize the US$150 trillion payments industry. PayPal Inc. and Stripe Inc. are among the fintech giants making inroads into stablecoins, with Stripe co-founder John Collison in April citing “technical improvements” for being bullish on the tokens.
More than 90% of stablecoin transaction volumes aren’t coming from genuine users, according to a new metric co-developed by Visa Inc., suggesting such crypto tokens may be far away from becoming a commonly used means of payment.
The dashboard from Visa and Allium Labs is designed to strip out transactions initiated by bots and large-scale traders to isolate those made by real people. Out of about US$2.2 trillion ($2.97 trillion) in total transactions in April, just US$149 billion originated from “organic payments activity,” according to Visa.
