Bitcoin and US dollar-pegged stablecoins are gaining traction as a global alternative for transferring value internationally without relying on banks and card networks, with the Bitcoin network’s settlement volume now comparable to the world’s largest payment processors.
Over the last 90 days, Bitcoin (BTC) facilitated $6.9 trillion in payments, which is reported to be “on par with or above Visa and Mastercard,” according to Glassnode’s digital asset research report for Q4 2025, released on Wednesday.
During the same timeframe, Visa processed $4.25 trillion in payment volume and Mastercard $2.63 trillion, totaling $6.88 trillion, according to the findings.
“Activity is moving off-chain as flows transition to #ETFs and brokers, but Bitcoin and #stablecoins continue to lead in on-chain settlement,” Glassnode stated on X.
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Bitcoin’s economic settlement remains modest compared to cards
When excluding internal transfers between addresses managed by the same entity, Bitcoin’s “economic” settlement is estimated at around $870 billion per quarter, or roughly $7.8 billion daily, according to Glassnode. The firm indicated that these figures highlight Bitcoin’s increasing significance as a “globally relevant settlement network, connecting institutional and retail transaction flows.”
This amount is minor when contrasted with Visa’s daily average transaction volume of $39.7 billion or Mastercard’s $26.2 billion, most of which is utilized for consumer retail activities and daily needs.
Conversely, Bitcoin’s settlement volume is primarily driven by trading, remittances, and store-of-value investments, while global merchant adoption remains limited.
On a global scale, just 20,599 merchants accept Bitcoin payments according to BTCmap, compared to Visa’s 175 million merchant locations.
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Stablecoins handle $225 billion daily, mainly through automated processes
Stablecoins are becoming another viable global value transfer option, primarily due to their stable pricing, low transaction costs, and 24/7 accessibility.
Currently, stablecoins are transferring an average of $225 billion daily, based on the 30-day moving average of total transfer volume for the top five stablecoins, as calculated by Glassnode.
However, approximately 70% of the $15.6 trillion in stablecoin transfers during Q3 2025 were tied to automated trading bots rather than organic user activity.
Organic activity constituted only about 20%, with the remaining 9% attributed to internal smart contract transfers and internal exchange transactions, according to a study from crypto exchange CEX.io.
CEX.io researchers emphasized the importance of differentiating between organic and bot activity for policymakers to assess systemic risk and the real-world use of stablecoin payments.
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