Square quarterly profit jumps on bitcoin boost
FILE PHOTO: Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square and CEO of Twitter, speaks during an interview with CNBC following the IPO for Square Inc., on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange November 19, 2015. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
Square reported a nearly 60 per cent rise in third-quarter gross profit on Thursday, fuelled by a jump in bitcoin transactions on its peer-to-peer payment service Cash App.
The payments firm, which is acquiring buy now, pay later pioneer Afterpay for US$29 billion, posted gross profit of US$1.13 billion in the quarter ended Sep 30.
Cash App generated US$1.82 billion in bitcoin revenue, up 11 per cent from a year earlier.
But San Francisco-based Square said bitcoin revenue and gross profit decreased from the previous quarter as relative stability in the cryptocurrency's price drove down trading activity.
The company, led by Twitter top boss Jack Dorsey, has benefited in the past year from a pandemic-driven jump in demand for e-commerce from people staying at home.
Its gross payment volumes, a measure of the transactions processed on Cash App, rose 27 per cent to US$3.7 billion.
Total net revenue jumped 27 per cent to US$3.84 billion.
