With the soaring increase in Bitcoin revenues, Square Inc. was able to beat analysts’ expectations when it posted a 266 percent year-over-year increase in its first-quarter results. The fintech company reiterated that it is not making any changes in its BTC buying strategy clarifying misunderstanding readers might have in a previous report that said the company has no plans to buy more Bitcoins.
“Our bitcoin strategy hasn’t changed,” Square CFO Amrita Ahuja posted on Twitter. “We’re deeply committed to this community, including working towards a greener future through our Bitcoin Clean Energy Initiative. And as we shared in February, we continue to assess our bitcoin investment on an ongoing basis. Nothing new here.”
Ahuja issued the statement to clarify misconceptions readers might have on an article titled “Square has no plans to buy more bitcoin,” published by Financial News on May 14, 2021. “Payments fintech Square said it has no plans to buy more bitcoin for its corporate treasuries, after losing $20m on its $220m investment in the cryptocurrency last quarter,” the London-based publication wrote.
“We don’t have any plans at this point to make further purchases,” Ahuja told the publication. “There are no plans at this point to re-evaluate where we are from a treasury standpoint.”
Bitcoin mining’s impact on the environment is one of the issues that have hampered corporate adoption of the crypto. For instance, Elon Musk recently announced Tesla’s decision to suspect Bitcoin payments citing environmental concerns.
Square is one of the early corporate adopters of Bitcoin. The fintech company made its first BTC acquisition in October 2020 buying $50 million worth of the crypto, according to Bitcoin.com. It made an additional purchase in February this year and spent $170 million for the transaction.
Bitcoin revenues also boosted the company’s first-quarter performance this year. “Cash App generated $3.51 billion of bitcoin revenue and $75 million of bitcoin gross profit during the first quarter of 2021, each up approximately 11x year over year,” Square wrote in its report. “Bitcoin revenue and gross profit benefited from a year-over-year increase in the price of bitcoin, bitcoin actives, and growth in customer demand.”
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