All of the things that happen in a regular CC transaction have economic value, i.e. buying stuff, interest, loans, network charges, transaction fees etc. etc..

All of the things that happen in a regular CC transaction have economic value, i.e. buying stuff, interest, loans, network charges, transaction fees etc. etc.. Even BTC-USD trades have economic value obviously. The article presents transactions which are basically kinds of accounting functions, i.e. tumblers to hide trails etc. etc.. As far as USD, maybe this would be the equivalent of moving USD from one account to another. Now, clearly it wouldn't be done if there was no value to the transaction ... but it's generally net neutral stuff. There's now way to compare to the USD because it's generally not something that is tracked at all with fiat currency because it would be pointless. But it just happens to go on the record with BTC.