Jack Dorsey saw a major Bitcoin boost as his payments focussed fintech firm Square inc (NYSE:SQ) (NYSE: SQ) doubled revenues in its Bitcoin and crypto business.
Square’s mobile banking platform CashApp increased Bitcoin services revenues by some 200% year-on-year to US$2.72bn - albeit, it marked a 22.3% dip from US$3.5bn generated in the prior quarter in which Bitcoin hit all-time highs.
The CashApp unit made a gross profit of US$546mln, up 94% year-on-year.
It helped Square’s second-quarter results blow past expectations, with adjusted earnings per share of US$0.66 versus consensus forecasts for US$0.31.
Square, which aside from CashApp operates a mobile-phone linked card payments platform, reported US$204mln of net income on US$4.68bn of revenue which was shy of Wall Street expectations of just over US$5bn.
It comes as Square’s small to medium-sized enterprise clientele continue to bounce back following the Covid-19 lockdowns.
In other headline news, Square also revealed a deal to acquire Australian ‘buy now pay later’ firm Afterpay in a US$29bn deal.
Whilst CashApp’s Bitcoin services revenue was boosted by activity levels in crypto, a decrease in value of Bitcoins owned by Square resulted in a US$45mln impairment against the group’s intangible assets.
Square presently holds around 8,027 Bitcoins, according to crypto data website Bitcoin Treasuries.
The company also warned that its Bitcoin holdings could see further fluctuations in coming quarters due to the volatile nature of the crypto market.
READ: Dorsey and Square plan to unlock crypto payments
Jack Dorsey, founder of Twitter and Square, is a long-standing proponent of cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies.
In July, he launched a new venture via Square with a new business somewhat tongue-in-cheek named TBD, which pledges to build an open developer platform for Bitcoin. The venture is being led by Mike Brock, who heads the Strategic Development Group at CashApp.
Square’s new business is focused on decentralised financial services, using Bitcoin.
A decentralised finance (or DeFi) application will be aimed at recreating traditional financial systems such as banks and exchanges based in cryptocurrency.
Dorsey last month also announced a venture that will invest US$5mln to build an open-source, solar-powered Bitcoin mining facility.
Meanwhile, on the hardware side, Square is making a physical wallet for Bitcoin tied to its digital payment services to potentially allow even small vendors to easily switch-on crypto based payments.