TL;DR
- Visa’s Dashboard: Aim to simplify stablecoin data by providing clear facts for four stablecoins across nine blockchains, helping compare them to traditional financial systems.
- Bot Data Filtering: Visa has implemented methods to filter out bot-driven transactions, adjusting the reported transaction volume from $2.65 trillion to a more accurate $265 billion.
- Transaction Accounting: Stablecoin transactions are accounted differently than traditional ones; Visa’s analytics consider a $100 swap on Uniswap as $100 in volume, not $200.
Visa, the global financial services giant, has launched an Online Analytics Dashboard specifically designed for stablecoins. The platform aims to simplify the complex data landscape by providing straightforward facts about four stablecoins used across nine blockchains.
Visa’s crypto leader, Cuy Sheffield, explained that while stablecoin data is publicly available in real-time, it requires analysis to be meaningfully compared to traditional financial systems.
The variability in stablecoin metrics is often due to their diverse uses. In decentralized finance (DeFi), bot programs or smart contracts are employed for arbitrage, liquidity provision, and market making, among other functions.
To present a more precise picture of stablecoin activity, Visa has introduced techniques to eliminate data driven by bots. By employing a basic rule of thumb to exclude inauthentic transactions, the transaction volume over the past 30 days has been recalibrated from $2.65 trillion down to $265 billion.
Differences in Stablecoin and Conventional Transactions
Sheffield also highlighted that stablecoin transactions are accounted for differently from conventional ones. For instance, if a user swaps $100 of USDC for PYUSD on Uniswap, it is recorded as $200 in the total stablecoin volume.
This is because $100 of USDC is moved from the user’s wallet to the Uniswap contract, and simultaneously, $100 of PYUSD is moved from the contract to the user’s wallet. However, Visa’s analytics will consider such transactions as $100 in volume.
The dashboard presents a variety of charts and graphs, showcasing data related to the supply, transactions, and user base of USD Coin (USDC), Tether (USDT), PayPal USD (PYUSD), and Pax Dollar (USDP). However, it does not account for off-chain activities associated with these stablecoins.
Visa’s engagement with crypto and blockchain technology extends beyond this initiative. In 2023, it launched a project to advocate for the adoption of public blockchain networks and stablecoin payments and has already processed transactions with USDC. It also partnered with MetaMask to enable crypto withdrawals on its debit cards.
