Today, Square (NASDAQ: SQ) reported its 2021 first quarter earnings. The company remained committed to holding bitcoin as an “instrument of global economic empowerment,” seeing tremendous gains from its $220 million in bitcoin purchases.
“In February 2021, we invested $170 million in bitcoin as we believe cryptocurrencies are an instrument of economic empowerment, which aligns with the company’s purpose” per the earnings report.
With this $170 million purchase, the company bought an additional 3,318 bitcoin at an average price of $51,235.68 per bitcoin. This supplemented Square’s initial purchase of 4,709 bitcoin for $50 million that the company announced in October 2020, which are now worth approximately $263.2 million at the time of writing. The company currently holds 8,027 bitcoin, worth approximately $448 million, giving it the third-largest bitcoin holdings of any publicly-traded company.
“We see bitcoin as the internet’s potential to have a native currency, and we want to further that as much as we can,” Jack Dorsey, Square’s CEO, said during an earnings call. “Our focus is enabling bitcoin to be the native currency, it removes a bunch of friction for our business and we believe fully that it creates more opportunities for economic empowerment around the world.”
Square generated a staggering $3.51 billion in bitcoin revenue during the first quarter of 2021, along with $75 million of bitcoin gross profit, each up approximately 1,000% year over year. The company’s gross profit was $964 million, up 79% year over year.
Cash App, Square’s payments app and bitcoin sales portal, also had phenomenal growth this quarter, finishing with $495 million in gross profit, up 171% year over year.
At the end of the quarter, Square had $4.8 billion in available liquidity, with $4.3 billion in cash and cash equivalents, paired with $500 million available to withdraw from the company’s revolving credit facility.
In the future, Square will continue to provide bitcoin services to customers and hold bitcoin as an instrument for economic empowerment, putting itself ahead of competitors.