Mobile payment company Square announced on Tuesday at its fourth quarter 2020 earnings conference that it had purchased 3,318 bitcoins for $170 million. The total value of Bitcoin on the company’s balance sheet has reached $394 million.
According to a previous report by “Beijing”, the company purchased 4,709 Bitcoins for $50 million in October 2020 as assets on its balance sheet.
The company stated that as of December 31, 2020, Bitcoin assets accounted for approximately 5% of Square’s total cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities.
The company believes that cryptocurrency is an economic empowerment tool that provides individuals with a way to participate in the global monetary system and ensure their own financial future.
In its full earnings report, the company also revealed that it sold $4.57 billion in Bitcoin through Cash App in 2020, and its annual gross profit was $97 million. Among them, in the fourth quarter of 2020, Square sold $1.76 billion in Bitcoin through Cash App.
According to the company, the revenue growth comes from new and existing customers.
The report states: “In the fourth quarter of 2020, the Bitcoin transaction volume per customer increased by more than 2.5 times year-on-year. This was mainly due to purchase activity, because existing customers continued to buy Bitcoin while new users purchased more Bitcoin.”
Cash App is a competitor to Venmo, Zelle and other personal payment applications. What makes it unique is that it allows customers to buy stocks and Bitcoin, similar to Robinhood.
Cash App is usually free to customers, and its business model is to charge merchants a certain percentage of each transaction.
Square’s CEO Jack Dorsey stated that the company will “double the bet” on Bitcoin’s promise.
Author/ Translator: Jamie Kim
Bio: Jamie Kim is a technology journalist. Raised in Hong Kong and always vocal at heart. She aims to share her expertise with the readers at blockreview.net. Kim is a Bitcoin maximalist who believes with unwavering conviction that Bitcoin is the only cryptocurrency – in fact, currency – worth caring about.