Square’s Cash App deals in bitcoin operationally but a $50 million investment from the publicly traded firm’s cash reserves has grown significantly since being announced last fall.
Square’s 4,709 bitcoins were worth $50 million when the company announced the purchase in October 2020. Now that BTC is worth a whopping $253 million.
Along with MicroStrategy, Square was an early entrant in the corporate bitcoin sweepstakes. Such treasury management plays inspired Elon Musk’s Tesla to invest $1.5 billion in bitcoin earlier this month.
Still, ahead of Square’s latest earnings report on Tuesday, analysts aren’t as enthused about the fraction of Square’s treasury (roughly 1% of the firm’s total assets when announced) that is crypto-denominated.
“There will be a bigger focus on the bitcoin purchases of their customer base and Cash App,” said Seaport Global analyst Chris Brendler. “It should be a big number in the fourth quarter.”
Analyst consensus estimates that Square will record $1.5 billion in bitcoin revenue, but those estimates could be off because of analysts who don’t pay attention to the bitcoin markets, Brendler said. His own estimate is $2.2 billion, a $600 million increase from Square’s third quarter bitcoin transaction revenue.
In the third quarter of 2020, Square reported $1.63 billion in bitcoin revenue, which resulted in $32 million of gross profit from the bitcoin product in that quarter.