Payment platform Square saw a new revenue high from bitcoin (BTC) sales through its Cash app, while profits from Bitcoin sales remained low, according to a letter to shareholders outlining first quarter (Q1) 2019 financial figures. In its recently published letter on earnings — which is unaudited — Square revealed that in the Q1 2019 the company’s total net revenue grew 43% year over year, amounting to $959 million, wherein bitcoin revenue was $65.5 million. Bitcoin costs for the same period reportedly amounted to $64.7 million, meaning that overall bitcoin profits amounted to roughly $830,000. In the fourth quarter of …

Top Stories This Week Six Global Banks Sign Up to Issue Stablecoins on IBM’s Now-Live Blockchain Network This week, six international banks signed letters of intent to issue their own stablecoins — which will be backed by their national fiat currencies — on IBM’s now-live blockchain-powered payments network, “World Wire.” According to the joint announcement by IBM and Stellar, the World Wire has gone live with over 44 banks on its service, supporting 47 currencies in 72 countries. The IBM project was launched with Stellar in September 2018, and plans to expand the blockchain-powered settlement network to further assets. The …

United States-based payment platform Square is hiring cryptocurrency engineers and is offering to pay them in digital currency, according to a tweet published by Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey on March 20. In the tweet, Dorsey announces that “Square is hiring 3–4 crypto engineers and one designer to work full-time on open source contributions to the Bitcoin/crypto ecosystem. Work from anywhere, report directly to me, and we can even pay you in Bitcoin!” Dorsey further commented that the decision to pay employees in digital currency is based on the intention “to make the broader crypto ecosystem better,” thus contributing …

Top Stories This Week Research: ‘Free’ Electricity for Students Makes College Campuses Major Crypto Miners According to research from tech conglomerate Cisco, college campuses are the second-largest crypto miners across industry verticals. The researchers investigated crypto mining activities across a variety of industries, finding that university campuses are ranked the second-biggest miners of digital currency at 22 percent, with the energy and utilities sector in first at around 34 percent. According to the research, the increasing mining difficulty for many cryptocurrency means that a higher amount electricity is needed, making it profitable for students to mine since the university pays …

Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey alluded to spending $10,000 per week on Bitcoin (BTC) on the podcast Tales from the Crypt on March 4. On the podcast, Dorsey spoke on how he came to experiment with Bitcoin and what parallels he sees between Bitcoin and Twitter. Speaking about the “Stacking Sat Saturday” — a trend where users buy $25 in BTC every week to show the growing adoption of cryptocurrencies — Dorsey said that “[he] saw that [Stacking Sat Saturday] on Twitter […] I would have participated but I have already exceeded my limit on CashApp. I can’t purchase …

United States-based payment platform Square reported $166 million in annual Bitcoin (BTC) revenue for 2018, data from its annual earnings report published Feb. 27 confirms. Square, which shares its CEO Jack Dorsey with Twitter, achieved just over $52 million in Bitcoin sales for Q4, surpassing Q3 by $9 million and Q2 by more than $15 million. Clear profit from the Bitcoin operations, which involve Square’s consumer app Cash, remain low, as purchasing costs account for the vast majority of revenue. Nonetheless, Bitcoin industry figures appeared buoyed by the results, which contrast with a forecast slowdown for Square more generally, with …

Twitter co-founder and CEO Jack Dorsey — also the founder and CEO of United States-based Bitcoin (BTC)-supporting payments service Square — said that rolling out the Lightning Network on Square’s Cash App is a question of “when, not if.” Dorsey made his remarks during an interview alongside Elizabeth Stark, co-founder of Lightning Labs, on the Stephen Livera podcast Feb. 11. The Lightning Network (LN) is a second-layer solution to Bitcoin’s scalability limitations, which works by opening payment channels between users that keep the majority of transactions off-chain. In response to a question regarding possible LN support on the popular Cash …

Co-founder and CEO of Twitter Jack Dorsey declared again that he believes Bitcoin (BTC) will be the internet’s native currency. Dorsey made his comments during an interview with American comedian and podcast host Joe Rogan published on Feb. 2. During the interview, Dorsey stated: “[Bitcoin] was something that was born on the internet, that was developed on the internet, that was tested on the internet…It is of the internet.” The Twitter CEO had made a similar claim before, noting in mid-May 2018 that he sees Bitcoin as a choice for the internet’s native currency. Dorsey is also the founder and …

Top Stories This Week Altcoin Ethereum Classic Reportedly Undergoes 51 Percent Attack Earlier this week, the Ethereum Classic (ETC) reportedly underwent a 51 percent attack. In the aftermath, crypto exchange Coinbase noted that upwards of $1.1 million in crypto was double spent during the time of the deep blockchain reorganization. Coinbase and several other cryptocurrency exchanges temporarily paused deposits and withdrawals of the altcoin to prevent loss of funds. Crypto exchange Gate.io confirmed that the attack was carried out and promised refunds, stating that around 54,200 ETC in total (worth around $271,500 at the time) was transferred during the attack. …

United States-based Bitcoin (BTC)-supporting payments firm Square has been named Yahoo Finance company of the year, according to a report from the media outlet Dec. 18. As Yahoo Finance reports, $26 billion market cap payments company — founded by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey in 2009 — has reportedly seen its stock go up 72 percent through Dec. 14; its shares were up 170 percent through the end of September, before the wider market downturn. As previously reported, Square first announced in November 2017 that it would release a BTC trading option to a select 3 million of its Square …

A crypto company that enables thousands of retailers to function as virtual ATMs for an array of cryptocurrencies has recently processed its largest single transaction to date, valued at over $3.44 million. Netcoins, which is aiming to simplify the process of buying and selling crypto by offering the public a trustworthy source for making purchases, says its performance has been strengthening — even despite the recent turbulence seen in the market. Mark Binns, the company’s CEO, said, “Despite the bear crypto market that is upon us, Netcoins continues to grow the top line transactional revenue number.” Binns went on, saying: …

U.S. financial services company Square revealed it generated $43 million in Bitcoin (BTC) revenue for Q3 2018 in its most recent shareholder letter Nov. 8. Presenting a digest of its total earnings and financial activities, Square, which introduced Bitcoin support in its Square Cash payment app earlier this year, saw cryptocurrency revenue grow by a total of $6 million compared to Q2. “Total net revenue was $882 million in the third quarter of 2018, up 51% year over year. This includes $43 million of bitcoin revenue,” the letter confirms, stating: “Excluding bitcoin revenue, total net revenue was $839 million, up …