San Francisco-based payment service app Square is planning to extend its support for Bitcoin and might facilitate consumer-to-merchant Bitcoin payments soon.
The prospect was revealed by Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square and Twitter, on a private media call with Market Watch after publicly posting Square’s quarterly performance report.
Mr. Dorsey said: “Bitcoin, for us, is not stopping at buying and selling. We do believe that this is a transformational technology for our industry, and we want to learn as quickly as possible.”
He also believes that Bitcoin offers “an opportunity to get more people access to the financial system”.
In November 2017, Square integrated Bitcoin trading on the Square Cash app platform and the results of that move are clearly reflected in the firm’s quarterly report. The company’s total net revenue and adjusted revenue for 2017 Q4 significantly increased compared to the previous quarter of the same year.
An excerpt from the quarterly report noted: “Additionally, customers can now buy and sell Bitcoin in Cash App. We observed that this was a feature our customers wanted, and we support Bitcoin because we see it as a step in the long-term path toward greater financial access for all.”
Instant buying (and selling, if you don’t want to hodl) of Bitcoin is now available to most Cash App customers. We support Bitcoin because we see it as a long-term path towards greater financial access for all. This is a small step.
We also made this! https://t.co/z3u0liDNk4
— jack (@jack) January 31, 2018
Moreover, Square, after years of operation, revealed the number of customers on its platform for the first time, showing that the Cash platform has topped 7 million users in December, just after the introduction of Bitcoin trading services. The report also revealed that the customers using Square Cash debit card spent more than $90 million.
CNBC quoted Paul Condra, an analyst at Credit Suisse: “We believe bitcoin and other crypto sales represent a potential mid/long-term growth opportunity for Square and we are positive on the strategy. This strategy could also drive greater adoption of Square Cash and we note SQ is well positioned to potentially facilitate crypto-payment purchases at Square merchants at some point in the future.”
(Photo: Square)
