Bitcoin Could Take Over a Trillion-Dollar Market? Really?

In 2016, as a digital gold, Bitcoin serves investors and traders around the world. In certain regions, when people face economic turmoil and financial ups and downs, it can protect personal assets and wealth.

The next phase in Bitcoin’s long-term roadmap is to build mainstream awareness of it as a currency and “take over” trillion-dollar markets that currently rely on fiat currencies or banking services.

Tuur Demeester, chief editor of Adamant Research, recently published an article on the Nasdaq website detailing the seven major markets that Bitcoin will be able to compete in the future, including electronic payments, e-commerce, remittances, hedge funds, gold, cash and overseas savings markets.

Huge potential of electronic payment and remittance market

Some of the above markets have already been challenged by Bitcoin, mainly because Bitcoin skips third-party service providers or institutions and directly supervises market economic activities.

In particular, the $2 trillion electronic payments and $514 billion remittance markets have seen the rapid rise of innovative Bitcoin startups and related service providers, which are gradually taking market share and have a bright future.

Cointelegraph reported yesterday that Abra, a high-profile Bitcoin application in the global remittance market, plans to launch internationally next month to create a decentralized network of senders and receivers of remittances.

Essentially, Abra works like a peer-to-peer dominant money transfer company like Western Union, meaning users can send money directly to international recipients who can receive it through individual Abra tellers. The main difference between Western Union and Abra is that Western Union charges lower fees and has a more secure network that is less prone to fraud.

In the Philippines, one of the world’s largest remittance markets, we can also see the growing popularity of Bitcoin remittance service providers, such as Bitspark, Rebit.ph and Coins.ph, which have already established reliable and solid infrastructure across the country. Startups such as Bitspark and Rebit.ph even allow Filipino users to send money directly to international recipients for a low fee.

In some multi-trillion dollar markets, Bitcoin has already replaced key players and industry leaders. For example, in the remittance market, Bitcoin’s market capitalization has surpassed Western Union (a mainstream infrastructure platform serving the global remittance market).

Old songs are often sung, but classic

The $7 billion gold market is another key market that Bitcoin directly competes with.

In regions like India and China, where governments have bans and strict restrictions on gold imports and exports, and local authorities are cracking down on residents who possess precious metals, the demand for Bitcoin is increasing rapidly.

Traders and investors in the two major gold markets are looking to alternative safe-haven assets like Bitcoin to protect their wealth.