The Square payment company has announced an investment of $50 million in bitcoin.
"Today Square announces the purchase of $50 million worth of bitcoin. Square believes that the cryptocurrency is a tool for expanding economic opportunities, providing a way to participate in the global monetary system, which corresponds to the mission of the company," - said Square through its investment unit.
Square was founded by CEO Twitter and a big supporter of bitcoin, Jack Dorsey. That's why she was named the most likely candidate among public companies that might want to invest in Bitcoin.
"Dorsey controls $10 billion worth of cash reserves on Twitter and Square. Inflation reduces their value. He has only one word in his profile, and that word is 'bitcoin,'" said analyst Willie Wu earlier.
Square followed the example of MicroStrategy, which has invested $425 million in bitcoin since late summer. In a conversation with Anthony Pompliano, co-founder of Morgan Creek Digital, Michael Saylor, CEO of MicroStrategy, said that currently there are 35,000 public companies with a total amount of free reserves of $5 trillion. According to Wu's estimates, if such companies decide to place in the bitcoin 1% of their capital, it will be enough to raise the capitalization of crypto to $2 trillion.
At the time of publication, Square had not provided any further clarifications on its latest decision, but Dorsey has repeatedly advocated for bitcoin, including stating that it could become its own currency on the Internet.
Square's market capitalization is about $80 billion. By comparison, MicroStrategy's capitalization is $1.5 billion.
UPD: Square acquired 4,709 Bitcoins, which represents 1% of its total assets.