June 25, a new class action was filed in California against fintech startup Plaid, which was acquired by Visa for $5.3 billion earlier this year. The plaintiffs allege that Plaid violated privacy and data protections by accumulating and monetizing financial transactions of millions of users. $5,000 per infraction The complaint alleges that the company accumulated this data by “data plumbing” popular services like Venmo, Stripe, Square’s Cash App and Robinhood. It purports that Plaid knew: “Every dollar you deposit or withdraw, every dollar you charge or pay to your credit card, and every dollar you put away for retirement, within …

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey’s Square now allows its users to buy Bitcoin (BTC) automatically in the latest push to boost uptake of the largest cryptocurrency. Confirmed by Dorsey on Twitter on May 18, Square’s Cash App now supports automated BTC purchases at set time intervals. Square shielding BTC buyers from “market swings” Square already includes a Bitcoin wallet and has rolled out the feature, properly known as Auto Invest, to its stock purchases as well. “You don’t need perfect timing if you’re thinking long-term,” the company’s website explains about the new feature. Auto Invest lets you set it and forget …

Square’s Cash App and asset manager Grayscale consumed over 50% of newly issued Bitcoin (BTC) in Q1 2020, a new report shows. Australian fund manager ListedReserve tweeted a calculation based on two gross measures: Grayscale’s inbound flows into its Bitcoin and Ethereum Trusts in Q1, which amount to $388.9 million, and Cash App’s $306 million revenue that came from Bitcoin sales during the same period. Those numbers were then divided by the total value of BTC mined in Q1 — $1.3 billion — based on the average BTC price of $8,068. The results showed that Grayscale and Cash App sold …

On May 6, Square released its filings for the first quarter of 2020. The filings publicized revenue for Square’s Cash App, a majority of which came from Bitcoin. The numbers for Q1 and Bitcoin’s role $306 million of Cash App’s $528 million revenue for the first quarter of the year came from Bitcoin. Despite those numbers, Bitcoin composed a small fraction of Cash App’s profit, only $7 million of $183 million total profit. The company explained why it separated Bitcoin revenue as being more of a core mission: “We deduct bitcoin revenue because our role is to facilitate customers’ access …

Coming every Sunday, Hodler’s Digest will help you track every single important news story that happened this week. The best (and worst) quotes, adoption and regulation highlights, leading coins, predictions and much more — a week on Cointelegraph in one link. Top Stories This Week Weekend trap? Bitcoin hits $7,300 in attempt to finally break out At the start of the week, we knew a big move for Bitcoin was brewing — but it was unclear whether or not the world’s biggest cryptocurrency was heading to $6,000 or $8,000. After a scary slip below $6,666, we got our answer on …

Square Capital, a crypto-friendly payment firm founded by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, is purportedly among the first Bitcoin (BTC)-related companies joining the United States federal emergency lending program. The firm has received U.S. Treasury and Small Business Administration (SBA) approval to become a lender under the federal Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Square to start rolling out PPP applications this week By obtaining approval, Square is officially authorized to support small businesses by providing them with low-interest loans that can be 100% forgiven if used to cover approved costs. Jackie Reses, head of Square Capital, tweeted April 13 that the firm …

Square’s Cash App is allowing U.S. citizens and residents who don’t usually file a tax return to direct forthcoming government stimulus payments to the mobile payments application. The move comes after the company failed to convince the United States Treasury to let it distribute the stimulus funds to segments of the U.S. population. Cash App users can request stimulus payments to app Within hours of the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) green-lighting the distribution of stimulus funds to citizens who don’t file tax returns on April 10, Square users can accept payments issued under Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) …

Twitter CEO and Square founder Jack Dorsey has started a new fund called Start Small LLC, aimed at fighting COVID-19. He’s seeding the fund with $1 billion, roughly 28% of his wealth. He shared the news via Twitter: Source: Twitter The fund’s efforts will initially focus fighting the global pandemic currently dominating the news cycle, but will eventually switch to providing money for girl’s health, education and universal basic income (UBI) initiatives. Dorsey is really putting his money where his mouth is when it comes to taking action to improve the world: “I believe they represent the best long-term solutions …

The founder and CEO of Square Inc, Jack Dorsey, believes that his company’s crypto-friendly payments application Cash App can distribute America’s stimulus package more efficiently than the U.S. government. On March 27, Dorsey responded to the tweet of a Cash App user suggesting that the payments application could be used to distribute the United States’ forthcoming $2 trillion stimulus package. Square contacts U.S. Treasury regarding stimulus distribution “People need help immediately,” Dorsey posted. “The technology exists to get money to most people today (even to those without bank accounts). Square and many of our peers can get it done. US …

Square’s Bitcoin (BTC) revenue continues to grow, even as the popular payments app lowers its first-quarter revenue estimates by $800 million due to the coronavirus crisis. According to a company announcement on March 24, COVID-19 was not a factor in the company’s growth until around 10 days ago: “While the beginning of March was relatively in line with the company’s expectations, over the trailing ten-day period Seller GPV [gross processing volume] has declined by approximately 25% year over year, with greater declines in recent days.” This resulted in Square revising its first-quarter total net revenue from an estimate of $1.3–1.344 …

While Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey could potentially be ousted by investors, at least two major figures in the crypto industry have already voiced support for the exec. Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of major cryptocurrency project Ethereum, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is known for his active endorsement to crypto, do not want Dorsey to step down from his position at Twitter. Musk simply stated: “Just want say that I support @Jack as Twitter CEO. He has a good [heart].” Buterin specifically questioned the competence of a new potential CEO that would replace Dorsey, saying: “I also #StandWithJack. Twitter certainly has …

Square Crypto, the payments company launched by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, is now officially supporting Bitcoin (BTC) development through a grant program. This formalizes the already significant contributions made by the company toward the cryptocurrency. Through a March 4 announcement, the company announced that the Square Grants program would be made publicly available. Two developers had already received grants: BTCPayServer received $100,000 to continue development of its open-source payment processor, and a pseudonymous developer received an undisclosed sum in connection to Lightning Network development. With the announcement, Square revealed to have also granted undisclosed amounts to Jon Atack and Tankred …