Square news-Page 5
Ripple’s Garlinghouse disses Bitcoin’s energy use in advance of Biden administration
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse thinks corporations converting cash to Bitcoin (BTC) could be making a costly mistake as a more environmentally-conscious Biden administration takes the White House in January. Garlinghouse tweeted Monday that the incoming president will be much tougher on climate change, requiring that all publicly-traded companies disclose their greenhouse-gas producing activities. He singled out Square as one company that “may want to pay attention” to new federal guidelines that could get rolled out as soon as Biden takes office. Garlinghouse’s comments piggyback off an earlier tweet from NYT Politics, which outlined some of Biden’s proposed measures on climate …
Regulation / Nov. 9, 2020
Almost 80% of Square’s Cash App Q3 revenue was from Bitcoin
Cash App, the Bitcoin-friendly mobile payments app from U.S. financial services firm Square, has reported Bitcoin (BTC) has overtaken all other revenue sources, making up almost 80% of its entire revenue in the third quarter. In Square’s third-quarter report, Cash App’s Bitcoin-derived revenue of $1.63 billion in Bitcoin marked a massive increase of more than 1,100% when compared to the same period in 2019. Bitcoin revenue was by far the largest component of Cash App’s overall revenue generation of $2 billion, with all other revenue streams totaling $453 million, or 22% of the total. Cash App functions as a broker …
Bitcoin / Nov. 6, 2020
Bitcoin bull Jack Dorsey keeps role as Twitter CEO following board review
Twitter CEO and major Bitcoin (BTC) bull Jack Dorsey will keep his role at the company, according to a recent decision by a Twitter board committee. As Bloomberg reported on Nov. 2, the committee officially reviewed Twitter’s leadership as part of a March 2020 agreement with activist investor Elliott Management and private equity firm Silver Lake. Both companies gained seats on Twitter’s board of directors through investments earlier this year. Citing a company filing on Nov. 2, Bloomberg reports that the independent board panel concluded that the existing management structure is sufficient. The filing reportedly reads: “The committee expressed its …
Bitcoin / Nov. 3, 2020
Bitcoin average transaction value increases 500% since July
The average value of Bitcoin (BTC) transactions has increased dramatically since July this year. The average transaction value was sitting at approximately $25,000 per transaction four months ago, but posted a yearly high on Oct. 20 at $151,000 per transfer — representing an increase of more than 500%. The latest spike, as shown by crypto analytics platform BitInfoCharts’ data, saw the average value of a transaction increase almost $50,000, up from $105,000, in the last 48 hours. This surge in transaction value comes shortly after Bitcoin’s trading dominance rose to levels not seen since 2017. The $151,000 average value is …
Bitcoin / Oct. 21, 2020
The next big treasure: Corporations buy up Bitcoin as a treasury reserve
October is a time for surprises. On Oct. 8, right on cue, mobile payments giant Square, which boasts a market cap of $86.6 billion, announced that it had invested $50 million in Bitcoin (BTC). Five days later, asset manager Stone Ridge Holdings, which manages over $10 billion in assets, disclosed that it had purchased more than 10,000 BTC, worth around $114 million, as part of its treasury reserve strategy. They both followed MicroStrategy, a Nasdaq-listed asset manager, which made known last month that it had accumulated $425 million in Bitcoin, making BTC the principal holding in its treasury reserve strategy. …
Bitcoin / Oct. 17, 2020
New York polls crypto firms on security measures after Twitter hack
The New York Department of Financial Services, or NYDFS, has released a lengthy report analyzing the impact of July’s high-profile Twitter hack, which resulted in the theft of over $118,000 worth of Bitcoin (BTC). Far beyond the immediate material impact, the NYDFS states that the incident exposed deep cybersecurity weaknesses of a publicly-traded social media company valued at $37 billion and counting over 330 million active monthly users. The discovery has serious consequences in light of the platform’s ever-expanding influence on both financial markets and the political sphere. Two key sections of the NYFDS report, published on Oct. 14, tackle …
Bitcoin / Oct. 16, 2020
Jack Dorsey's Square adds 4,709 Bitcoin to its balance sheet
In a surprise move, Square announced the acquisition of 4,709 Bitcoin (BTC) worth roughly $50 million at time of publication. The company’s co-founder Jack Dorsey has been a long-term proponent of Bitcoin and crypto, while the company’s CashApp allows its users to invest in Bitcoin. This news comes months after another publicly traded company, MicroStrategy, decided to convert a portion of its treasury into Bitcoin. Currently, the company holds 38,250 BTC and its CEO Michael Saylor has become one of the most vocal Bitcoin advocates. Though MicroStrategy is a large company in its own right with a $1.5 billion market …
Bitcoin / Oct. 8, 2020
Square launches cryptocurrency patent alliance to fight the trolls
Square, the United States-based financial services company headed by Twitter’s Jack Dorsey, is establishing a consortium to fight patent trolling and ensure open access to technology in the crypto sector. The Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance, or COPA, seeks to democratize access to innovative technologies in the crypto sector, asserting that “open access to patents covering foundational cryptocurrency technologies is necessary for the community to grow, freely innovate, and build new and better products.” Square is putting all of our crypto patents into a new non-profit org we’re calling the Crypto Open Patent Alliance, which will maintain a shared patent library …
Blockchain / Sept. 11, 2020
3 Bullish Signs That Overall Demand for Bitcoin Is Skyrocketing
Bitcoin (BTC) is seeing a surge in interest this summer as consumer awareness is reflected in unique network entities hitting more than two-year highs. Unique entity growth mirrors 2017 bull run More unique entities are joining the Bitcoin network as activity increasingly resembles the bull run to all-time highs in 2017. According to data from on-chain monitoring resource Glassnode, as of August 4, the average weekly new entity count has returned to 140,000 — its highest since early 2018. New entities refer to wallet addresses, with Glassnode defining them as “a cluster of addresses that are controlled by the same …
Adoption / Aug. 5, 2020
Bitcoin Trading Generated $875M in Quarterly Revenue for Square
Jack Dorsey’s financial services company Square, Inc. has published its second-quarter financials for 2020, revealing $875 million in revenue from Bitcoin (BTC) trading on its Cash App product. With Cash App’s Bitcoin business incurring $858 million in quarterly expenses, Square’s BTC services generated $17 million in gross profit, with extreme market volatility and hype for Bitcoin’s block reward halving driving customer demand. Cash App now has 30 million active monthly users. Cash App’s Bitcoin profits up 75% since Q1 The quarterly performance comprised a 600% increase in revenue and a 710% gain in gross profit year-over-year, and a 150% increase …
Bitcoin / Aug. 5, 2020
Second Lawsuit Filed Against Plaid
A new class action lawsuit complaint against fintech startup Plaid has been filed with more plaintiffs alleging the company violated the data privacy of users. The new complaint filed on behalf of four new plaintiffs alleged that Plaid—which was bought by Visa for $5.3 billion this year—collected information on over 200 million distinct financial accounts who use services such as Venmo, Coinbase, Square’s Cash App and Stripe. The complaint states Plaid obtained “direct and full access to consumers’ personal financial banking information for Plaid’s own commercial purposes wholly unrelated to the consumers’ use of the apps.” It adds: “Plaid exploits …
Regulation / July 19, 2020
Coinbase’s ’Data Plumber’ Denies All Allegations
A source close to Plaid — the company that serves as a “data plumber” to Coinbase, Robin Hood, Square’s Cash App and many others — denied all allegations of the class-action complaint that was recently filed. The entire complaint hinges on the allegation that Plaid sells user data to the “highest bidder.” A Plaid spokesperson called this allegation “baseless." A money-making operation? A source close to Plaid’s legal team, speaking to Cointelegraph on the condition of anonymity, reaffirmed that the company has never sold user data in any shape or form. They also opined that this is just a “money-making …
Business / July 2, 2020