Bitcoin Surges Fast Forward On Many Fronts Heading Into 2016
Bitcoin’s growth since its 2009 launch has not formed a solid, straight line. But the upward movement continues, and those who question its continuance will have a hard time justifying their doubts in the face of a graphic overview prepared by Coupofy.com , a Bali, Indonesia-based digital marketing concern that provides online coupons for retailers.
Bitcoin is moving from an investment commodity to everyday use, according to Coupofy.com. But this was only one of several positive findings about bitcoin’s future that Coupofy.com illustrated in 33 charts provided to CCN.com.
Bitcoin Leads In Currency Growth
Bitcoin was the best-performing currency this year, climbing 21% in value in USD. Bitcoin’s performance surpassed that of the U.S. dollar and the Israeli shekel.
Venture capital investment in bitcoin in the last three years has totaled $927 million, more than half of which took place in 2015.
The growth of the largest bitcoin exchanges ranged from 280% to 847% from October 2014 to October 2015.
And while bitcoin has not yet been accepted by most retailers, a number of global merchants do accept bitcoin: Microsoft, Expedia, Dish, Dell, Tiger Direct, Intuit and Overstock. One chart shows which year the major merchants began accepting bitcoin.
The activity of these merchants undoubtedly contributed to the growth in bitcoin transactions.
Bitcoin Transactions Soar
Bitcoin’s daily transactions in 2015 were $289 million, which is comparable to PayPal, $397 million, Square, $362 million, and Western Union, $216 million.
Portending continued growth is that bitcoin transaction fees are low, 0.0001 BTC per 1,000 bytes, compared to other types of online payments. International transaction fees in 2015 were 2.7% to 2.9% for PayPal, $5 to $20 for Western Union, and $20 to $34 for MoneyGram (for a maximum $400).
The charts include a summary of key events contributing to the rise and fall of bitcoin, including: the Chinese government banning financial institutions from using bitcoin in 2013; massive DDos attacks on Mt. Gox; Bitstamp and BTC-e in 2014; the closure of Chinese exchanges’ bank accounts in 2014; the proposal of the New York State BitLicense in 2014; the hacking of Bitstamp in 2015; the European Union declaration of no value added tax on bitcoin trades in 2015; and the Economist front-page story on bitcoin in 2015.
VC Investment By Country, Sector
Another chart lists which year various countries received their first venture capital investment in bitcoin. Venture capital investment by industry sector is also broken out for 2013 and 2014: exchange, payment processor, mining, financial services, wallets and “universal.”
Leading venture capital bitcoin investor firms are listed, as are cryptocurrency startups to watch.
A chart picturing the “Bitcoin Millionaires Club” includes Roger Ver, Jared Kenna, the Winklevoss twins, Yufo Guo, Charlie Shrem, Tony Gallippi, and Satoshi Nakamoto, the bitcoin inventor whose identity remains uncertain.
Charts also list the top bitcoin payment service providers, the most popular bitcoin ATM manufacturers, the top five altcoins (Ripple, litecoin, Ethereum, Dashcoin and Dogecoin.)
Chart provided to CCN.com by Coupofy .
Featured image from Shutterstock.
