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Block Tops Q4 Estimates, Posts Nearly $2B in Bitcoin Transactions
The payments firm formerly known as Square took note of a slowdown in business in January due to the Omicron variant, but a growth recovery thus far in February.
By Brandy Betz
Updated May 11, 2023, 5:15 p.m. Published Feb 24, 2022, 10:34 p.m.
Make us preferred on GoogleFintech and digital payments giant Block reported better-than-expected 2021 fourth quarter results after the market closed on Thursday.
- Total revenue was $4.08 billion, up 29% year-over-year, narrowly topping the $4.04 billion analyst consensus. Excluding bitcoin, revenue totaled $2.12 billion, up 51% on the prior year. Adjusted EPS was $0.27 versus the $0.19 estimate.
- The peer-to-peer payment service Cash App, which allows users to directly buy and sell bitcoin, generated $1.96 billion of bitcoin transactions and $46 million of gross profit in Q4, up 12% and 14% year over year, respectively. For perspective, total company gross profit for Q4 was $1.18 billion.
- Of the $220 million of bitcoin put on the company balance sheet in late 2020 and early 2021, Block didn’t book an impairment loss in Q4, leaving the full year impairment charge at $71 million, and carrying value at $149 million. As of year's end, the fair value of the bitcoin investment was $371 million, or $222 million greater than the carrying value.
- Square announced its Block rebranding in December to reflect the company’s expansion beyond its roots of processing payments to sellers. On the crypto front, Block currently allows the approximately 70 million users of its Cash App to buy and sell bitcoin. The company is also building a decentralized bitcoin exchange and funding bitcoin developer projects.
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Pudgy Penguins is emerging as one of the strongest NFT-native brands of this cycle, shifting from speculative “digital luxury goods” into a multi-vertical consumer IP platform. Its strategy is to acquire users through mainstream channels first; toys, retail partnerships and viral media, then onboard them into Web3 through games, NFTs and the PENGU token.
The ecosystem now spans phygital products (> $13M retail sales and >1M units sold), games and experiences (Pudgy Party surpassed 500k downloads in two weeks), and a widely distributed token (airdropped to 6M+ wallets). While the market is currently pricing Pudgy at a premium relative to traditional IP peers, sustained success depends on execution across retail expansion, gaming adoption and deeper token utility.
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HYPE token's 50% surge is a story of crypto-traditional market convergence, treasury firm says
HYPE has surged 50%, outperforming bitcoin, ether and the CoinDesk 20 index by a big margin.
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- Hyperliquid's HYPE token has surged more than 50% to $34.57 this week, far outpacing bitcoin, ether and the broader crypto market, as trading activity on the platform accelerates.
- The token rally represents the merging of traditional assets with the crypto world, according to Hyperion DeFi, which is a HYPE treasury company.
- Originally a crypto perpetuals exchange, Hyperliquid has expanded into tokenized trading of equity indices, individual stocks, commodities and major fiat pairs via its HIP-3 upgrade.
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