Square made $3.16 billion revenue in the fourth quarter of 2020 — and Bitcoin flowing through its Cash App generated more than half.
This rounded off a strong year for Jack Dorsey-led fintech firm, which supports peer-to-peer payments, investments, and trading.
- More than three million users traded Bitcoin via Cash App in 2020 — about 10% of its overall userbase.
- Bitcoin generated $1.76 billion revenue (+502%) and $41 million gross profit (+162%) in Q4.
- 36 million active Cash App users in December 2020, one million bought Bitcoin for the first time in January.
In a letter to shareholders, Square in-part attributed its gains to rising demand for Bitcoin — as well as overall growth for Cash App.
Excluding Bitcoin revenues, Square generated $1.4 billion last quarter — up 23% year-on-year.
Alongside its earnings, Square disclosed it recently bought 3,318 BTC for $170 million (an average price of about $51,000 per BTC).
Square bought the Bitcoin dip
Square first entered Bitcoin last October when it paid $50 million for 4,709 BTC (about $10,600 per BTC).
Together that makes 8,027 BTC, for which Square paid $220 million. Bitcoin currently makes up about 5% of Square’s treasury.
At today’s prices, Square’s BTC stash worth over $400 million — which means the company is up over 80% on its investment.
For scale, Tesla’s $1.5 billion investment totalled 8% of its cash equivalents when it was announced earlier this month.
[Read more: Public stocks like Tesla and Square gain $5B on their Bitcoin]
But Michael Saylor’s MicroStrategy takes the cake, having just spent another billion on Bitcoin.
Bitcoin now makes up almost two-thirds of the company’s $7.8 billion market value, according to Bitcoin Treasuries.