Chamath Palihapitiya Says Stablecoins Are Crypto's 'Second Killer App' After Bitcoin, As Volumes Surpass Visa

Tech investor Chamath Palihapitiya highlighted the rising dominance of stablecoins in the global financial system Tuesday, deeming them one of the hottest cryptocurrency narratives besides Bitcoin (CRYPTO: BTC).

What Happened: As part of his deep dive into the stablecoin market, Palihapitiya noted that stablecoins’ weekly transaction volumes have exceeded that of Visa Inc. (NYSE:V).

These findings were corroborated by a recent report by asset management firm Bitwise, which showed stablecoin transaction volumes overtaking the payments giant by 2024. In 2020, stablecoin volumes were 11% of total VISA volumes.

The dominance led Palihapitiya to call dollar-backed stablecoins, including Tether (CRYPTO: USDT) and USD Coin (CRYPTO: USDC), the “second killer app” in the cryptocurrency space, next to Bitcoin.

See Also: Arizona Moving To Convert Up to 10% Of Its Treasury To Bitcoin: Legislature Clears Bills Paving Way For Strategic Crypto Reserve

None other than President Donald Trump has called on Congress to pass stablecoin legislation, emphasizing the need for clear rules to foster innovation in the cryptocurrency sector.

The SEC has already stated that stablecoins fully backed by physical U.S. dollars or low-risk, short-term liquid instruments and redeemable at a 1:1 ratio with the U.S. dollar will be classified as “non-securities.”

Price Action: Shares of VISA closed 0.70% higher at $337.51 during Monday’s regular trading session. The stock exhibited good momentum and quality scores as of this writing. To know more about these metrics and more, check out Benzinga Edge Stock Rankings.

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Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of Benzinga Neuro and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors.

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