Square made the announcement on Tuesday that it had acquired $170 million worth of bitcoin in order to boost its already sizeable position in the cryptocurrency.
Since purchasing Bitcoin in October, the latest acquisition takes the overall number of bitcoins owned by the company to nearly 5% of its currency and cash equivalents. The total cost is believed to be around $51,235 per Bitcoin. On Tuesday at the time of Square’s announcement, the cryptocurrency had dropped to under $48,000.
Around $50 million in bitcoin was previously bought by Square in October 2020. When this acquisition was made, it stood for fewer than 1% of the firm’s assets and cash equivalents.
The full press release is as follows:
Square, Inc. (NYSE: SQ) has posted its results for the fourth quarter and full year of 2020 on the Financials section of its Investor Relations website at investors.squareup.com and filed these results with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Square will host a conference call and earnings webcast at 2:00 p.m. Pacific time/5:00 p.m. Eastern time today to discuss these financial results. To register to participate in the conference call, or to listen to the live audio webcast, please visit the Events & Presentations section of Square’s Investor Relations website at investors.squareup.com. A replay will be available on the same website following the call.
Square also announced today that it has purchased approximately 3,318 bitcoins at an aggregate purchase price of $170 million. Combined with Square’s previous purchase of $50 million in bitcoin, this represents approximately five percent of Square’s total cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities as of December 31, 2020.
Aligned with the company’s purpose, Square believes that cryptocurrency is an instrument of economic empowerment, providing a way for individuals to participate in a global monetary system and secure their own financial future. The investment is part of Square’s ongoing commitment to bitcoin, and the company plans to assess its aggregate investment in bitcoin relative to its other investments on an ongoing basis.
Square’s Cash App Bitcoin Integration
People-to-person payment apps such as Venmo, Zelle, and others are competitors to Cash App. The differentiating point of Cash App is the fact that stocks and cryptocurrency trading are both available on the platform.
There has been a P2P (peer-to-peer) payment service on Cash App since 2013, but Bitcoin buying and selling wasn’t implemented until 2018.
Customers generally have the option of using the Cash App for free. This company does business in the following manner: it charges merchants a percentage of each transaction. You can also pay using a credit card instead of using a debit card.
