Bitcoin, the bellwether cryptocurrency, has surpassed Visa and Mastercard in terms of daily transaction volume, according to recent data provided by Glassnode. 

The unfiltered on-chain transaction volume of the flagship cryptocurrency stands at $46.4 billion. For comparison, the filtered economic transfer volume stands at $6.5 billion. 

The recent spike in transaction volume comes after the cryptocurrency's stunning recovery. As reported by U.Today, market sentiment swiftly shifted from fear to greed within just days. 

With its current market capitalization of $1.3 trillion, the leading cryptocurrency is also worth more than Visa and Mastercard. The two global credit card giants are valued at $556 billion and $418 billion, respectively.  

During bull runs, it is natural for the Bitcoin network to record a higher number of transactions. Recently, the number of transactions also spiked due to the launch of the Runes protocol in April. 

On July 16, the Bitcoin network recorded a total of 529,056 transactions.  

As reported by U.Today, Bitcoin celebrated the network's billionth transaction back in May.  

Can stablecoins compete with Visa? 

In April, Nansen revealed that such stablecoins as Tether (USDT), Circle (USDC) as well as Dai (DAI) cumulatively generated higher volumes than Visa's average monthly total throughout the previous year. 

However, it is worth noting that the vast majority of stablecoin transactions do not actually come from real users. In May, Bloomberg reported that a staggering 90% of stablecoin transactions were inorganic. 

Tether's USD remains the dominant stablecoin with a market cap of $113 billion. In the meantime, the stablecoin market is getting more crowded with major players like Ripple.