[rprend]

1.6 percent of global GDP blows my mind.

[Centigonal]

Well, it's not exactly a fair comparison, since they're comparing a volume number with GDP, which is total value produced in a year. Volume numbers are usually much bigger than production numbers, since money moves around a lot.

If I pay a restaurant $200 for dinner and my three friends each venmo me $50 for their share, then the exchanged volume was $350, but only $200 worth of value was generated.

[swyx]

good argument, bad example. GDP is a net revenue number but Stripe is using a gross revenue number (their equivalent of "GMV"). so the numerator/denominator are as different as possible to make it impressive.

[rprend]

Stripe doesn’t power money transfers, just commerce. So 100% of stripe volume is economic activity.

[jez]

For comparison, Visa's stated FY 2025 (ended Sep 30, 2025) payments volume was $14.2T.

rough math, but:

$14.2T / $1.9T * 1.6% = 12% global GDP

[rprend]

I was curious, and the American Clearing House has a TPV of $93 trillion, which means ACH is 78%?? That seems too high.

Oh - not all bank transfers count in GDP. I often move money from one account to another.

Note that Visa has the same issue: withdrawing money from an ATM shouldn’t count towards GDP! Neither does Vemo-ing a friend to settle up a split restaurant bill (my Venmo is attached to my debit card).

[reactordev]

At least it’s not 24.9%

Americans and credit have an unhealthy relationship.

[antiford2049]

this number is a little misleading, to put it mildly.

[hwhehwhehegwggw]

Why will a number blow your mind? Have you thought about how Universe exists from nothing?

[rprend]

I find it inspiring. I relate to the Collison brothers. They're a couple of hackers from Ireland. It blows my mind that a couple young guys like that can build something and in 20 years capture 2% of the entire world's economic activity.