Payments firm Square said in its third-quarter earnings letter Thursday that its peer-to-peer payment service, Cash App, generated $1.82 billion of bitcoin revenue in the quarter and $42 million of gross profit, up 115% and 29% year over year, respectively.
- Bitcoin revenue and gross profit decreased in the third quarter versus the second quarter, however, Square said, citing the “relative stability in the price of bitcoin, which affected trading activity compared to prior quarters.”
- Square also noted bitcoin revenue and gross profit may fluctuate in future quarters given changes in customer demand and bitcoin’s market price. It said that may be particularly the case “as we lap strong growth rates on a year-over-year basis in the fourth quarter of 2020.”
- Square’s total net revenue was $3.84 billion in the third quarter, up 27% year over year, while gross profit was $1.13 billion, up 43% year over year.
- On its third quarter conference call, the company said it will release a white paper on Nov. 19 regarding TBD, its new division focused on creating an open developer platform to build a decentralized bitcoin exchange.
- Square also said on the call that the company doesn’t plan on offering users other cryptocurrencies outside of bitcoin. The company said it is focused on building its hardware wallet and continuing plans to allow individuals and businesses to mine bitcoin. CEO Jack Dorsey initially alluded to the latter plan in a tweet several weeks ago.
- Shares of Square were down about 4.9% in post-market trading following the release of its Q3 results.
UPDATE (Nov. 4, 22:03 UTC): Added call commentary along with updated share movement.