Payment provider Square, Twitter’s sister company, announced that it has purchased 4,709 BTC worth $50 million. Square’s assets therefore consist of 1% bitcoin, the company announced via a press release. It is a powerful signal that is unlikely to go unnoticed in Silicon Valley .
The American payment provider Square invested 1% of their reserves in bitcoin, it announced in a press release on Thursday. Square purchased approximately 4709 BTC for a total amount of $50 million dollars (+/- ??42.5 million). The acquisition is notable because Square is the sister company of social media platform Twitter.
Bitcoin, according to Square, is a means of economic empowerment and a way for people to participate in the global financial system. ?ǣFor a company developing products for a more inclusive future, this investment is another step on that journey ,?ǥ said Square Chief Financial Officer Amrita Ahuja.
“We believe that bitcoin has the potential to be a more ubiquitous currency in the future. As it grows in adoption, we intend to learn and participate in a disciplined way. For a company that is building products based on a more inclusive future, this investment is a step on that journey.” – Amrita Ahuja, Chief Financial Officer of Square
Square & Bitcoin
The investment does not come entirely out of the blue, because Square has already embraced Bitcoin in other ways. Since 2018, Square has been offering the possibility to buy bitcoin via the Cash App (a kind of Tikkie ), which is popular in America.
Square Crypto, a specially created arm of the company, has also been sponsoring several prominent open source Bitcoin developers since last year. Square also recently initiated the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA), which makes patents freely available to participating companies and provides them with legal assistance and protection from “patent trolls.”
Square’s purchase of bitcoin seems to be an extension of this previously taken path.
Bitcoin on the balance
The decision may have been influenced by the recent announcement by publicly traded tech company MicroStrategy to place bitcoin as their primary cash reserve on their balance sheet. MicroStrategy invested a total of nearly half a billion dollars in bitcoin in August and September. Shortly after, a small Canadian restaurant chain followed. Square now seems to be joining this trend as well.
Jack Dorsey
Square’s embrace of Bitcoin is high profile because it is owned by Jack Dorsey, who is best known as the founder and CEO of social media platform Twitter. Dorsey has long been a staunch supporter of Bitcoin and in 2018 he already expressed the expectation that Bitcoin will become ‘the currency of the internet’, if not the world.
Since then, the tech billionaire seems increasingly passionate about Bitcoin. ?ǣBitcoin is direct activism against an unverifiable financial system that shuts people out, negatively impacting so much of our society.?ǥ he recently tweeted. In addition to Square’s initiatives, Dorsey has indicated in the past that he wants to do ‘something’ with Bitcoin in Africa and he added a Bitcoin emoji to Twitter. His Twitter profile now only has one word and that is ‘#bitcoin’.
Now that Square has invested 1% of their assets in bitcoin, ??Dorsey is stepping up his game. And while words are cheap, a $50 million business investment is a powerful signal that, given Jack Dorsey’s stature in Silicon Valley , is unlikely to go unnoticed.
Read the Square press release yourself, or take a look at the Square Crypto website for an overview of the projects it is involved in.
