Enforcers Move to Cut Visa's Private Sales Tax
We’re in a political moment, where both Kamala Harris and Donald Trump are dallying with cryptocurrency donors, under the pretense that crypto is some sort of useful innovation. Both talk up small business, both emphasize their bona fides for innovation and the economy. Crypto would seem to fit in here. After all, one ostensible use case of crypto is to pay for things without having to go through a set of payment monopolists, and that would help every merchant. Trump, for instance, recently paid for burgers with bitcoin before a rally.
Of course, in reality, no one uses crypto to pay for anything; even the $200 million political slush funds put together by crypto donors is denominated in dollars. But in this political moment, it might be useful to notice that someone *is* actually trying to help small business with our bloated payments system. Earlier this week, the Antitrust Division, in a case led by the deputy enforcer Doha Mekki, filed a complaint against credit card giant Visa for the monopolization of debit cards.
Unlike crypto, people do use debit cards to pay for stuff. In 2023, there were 57.6 billion debit transactions worth $2.8 trillion. And one company stands out as the dominant force in this area: Visa. 60% of debit transactions run through Visa’s payments network, with Mastercard at a distant second with 25%. This level of dominance is fruitful. Visa makes more from debit than credit cards at this point; its operating margins in North America are 83%, and its global revenue is over $32 billion a year.
