Square Reports 600% Increase in Quarterly Bitcoin Revenue

Square's bitcoin business is continuing its rapid growth, with Q2 revenue up 600% year on year.

• Announced Tuesday, the San Francisco payments company said revenue made from selling bitcoin to its Cash App customers in Q2 came to a total of $875 million, six times the amount in the same period in 2019.
• Square stresses it only takes a "small margin" selling bitcoin to customers, but Q2's results still mean it made $17 million profit – up 711% year over year.
• Square released its results ahead of schedule after someone gained "early external access." It hasn't provided any further details on what happened.
• Since Square first enabled bitcoin buying through its Cash App in November 2017, it has grown to become a dominant part of the business.
• While bitcoin made up only 5% of its revenue at $34 million in Q1 2018, it came to $65.5 million in the same quarter in 2019.
• By Q4 2019, Square's bitcoin revenue reached $178 million and $306 million in Q1 2020, $100 million more than the revenue generated from its fiat services.
• But Tuesday's results represent one of the biggest increases in quarter-to-quarter revenue to date. The company attributes the rise to a surge in customer demand and volumes as well as an increase in bitcoin's circulating supply.
• Square excludes bitcoin revenue from its total figures, saying that incorporating something so unpredictable and volatile into its results would make it hard to gauge the company's overall performance.

See also: Grayscale Says Institutions Invested Record $900M in Crypto Products in Q2