Topic: Square invests 50 million USD in BTC: instrument of economic empowerment (Read 806 times)

Block Announces First Quarter 2024 Results

May 02, 2024
DISTRIBUTED-WORK-MODEL/OAKLAND, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- Block, Inc. (NYSE: SQ) has posted its results for the first quarter of 2024 on the Financials section of its Investor Relations website at investors.block.xyz and filed these results with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Block will host a conference call and earnings webcast at 2:00 p.m. Pacific Time/5:00 p.m. Eastern Time today to discuss these financial results. To register to participate in the conference call, please visit the Events & Presentations section of Block’s Investor Relations website at investors.block.xyz.

Block also announced today a strategic investment into bitcoin following numerous positive developments both within the company and in the broader market. In April, Block implemented a bitcoin dollar cost average (DCA) purchase program that will run through 2024. Under the program, Block will be investing 10% of its gross profit from bitcoin products into bitcoin purchases.

Aligned with the company’s purpose, Block believes that bitcoin is an instrument of economic empowerment, providing a way for individuals to participate in a global monetary system and control their own financial future. In a new memo, Block has outlined its strategy for company owned bitcoin held for investment purposes, including its historical purchase execution, storage mechanics, and insurance and accounting considerations. The company plans to assess its aggregate investment in bitcoin relative to its other investments on an ongoing basis.

About Block

Block, Inc. (NYSE: SQ) (formerly, Square, Inc.) is a global technology company with a focus on financial services. Made up of Square, Cash App, TIDAL, and TBD, we build tools to help more people access the economy. Square makes commerce and financial services easy and accessible for sellers with its integrated ecosystem of technology solutions. With Cash App, anyone can easily send, spend, or invest their money in stocks or bitcoin. Afterpay brings Square and Cash App together, connecting consumers and businesses. Artists use TIDAL to help them succeed as entrepreneurs and connect more deeply with fans. TBD is building an open source platform and developer infrastructure that enables everyone to access and participate in the global economy.

For April 2024, the amount purchased under the DCA was $4.4 million.

Cash App generated $2.72 billion of bitcoin revenue and $55 million of bitcoin gross profit during the second quarter of 2021, each up approximately 3x year over year. Bitcoin revenue and gross profit benefited from year-over-year increases in the price of bitcoin and bitcoin actives, and growth in customer demand. Compared to the first quarter of 2021, bitcoin revenue and gross profit decreased on a quarter-over-quarter basis, driven primarily by relative stability in the price of bitcoin, which affected trading activity compared to prior quarters.
In future quarters, bitcoin revenue and gross profit may fluctuate as a result of changes in customer demand or the market price of bitcoin, particularly as we lap strong growth rates on a year-over-year basis in the second half of 2020.

Indeed, custody has been a critical aspect of Bitcoin UX in the past and continues to be a cumbersome task for most users. Not everyone will have the privilege to afford professional custody, provided that one of such acts in the relevant juristiction. Hence solution like this will greatly help the use of bitcoins.

Jesse Dorogusker said that the Bitcoin hardware wallet product must have the following directions: Bitcoin first, global distribution, multi-signature to achieve "assisted self-custody", and give priority to mobile usability.

Square will also create its own hardware wallet and a service for storing bitcoin. This was announced by the head of the hardware product development department of the payment company, Jesse Dorogusker. Given the fact that there are really a lot of problems in the hardware wallet market, I think the appearance of new products will give users more choice.

This company really know what to put on their bags, they wouldn’t bought it without a reason they probably they want to miss Bitcoin. I feel positive about this and sooner or later more companies will follow their steps, companies are fomoing now or others might secretly bought some Btc’s.

These tables are quite confusing for me. I use only https://www.bybt.com/Grayscale where I can see 653K BTC's in Greyscale possesion. And this hasn't changed for 3 months, meaning no buying occured. Which is strange, since the other day they announced a buy for $200mil which would be 3-4K BTC but this is not visible on the chart. They also are going to buy more with $550mil in the next days/weeks. And that negarive premium - to whom are they selling those shares?

Bitcoin costs are the total amount of bitcoin that we purchase.
We purchase bitcoin to facilitate customers’ access to bitcoin

Square Inc. said it purchased $170 million in Bitcoin, further committing to the cryptocurrency and raising its holdings to about 5% of the company’s cash and equivalents.

You are correct, I got once again stuck in the middle of an edit and left inconsistent digits: the total wealth is 360,000 billions, or 360 trillions. The important thing is the final bitcoin value is correct at 175,000 USD!

I am pretty sure there must be something wrong with that calculation, are you sure that total wealth is at 360 billion?

One of the first "model" I used when I decided to buy Bitcoin was based on the question: "What happens if everyone decides to buy 1% of their financial wealth in Bitcoin?"

Well the answer is this one (updated figures):

World Adult Wealth (bln)   360
1% of such Wealth is (bln)   3.6
   
   
Circulating Bitcoin   21,000,000
This is an overstatement, but I want conservative estimates.

   
Bitcoin Value   3,600,000,000,000/21,000,000 equal to USD 171,428.57.

So, yes, 1% is a lot!