Square Expands Cash App Bitcoin Service to All 50 US States

Mobile payments firm Square now lets customers buy and sell bitcoins via its Cash App in all 50 U.S. states.

The company – which was co-founded by Twitter chief executive Jack Dorsey – announced the service expansion through a Tweet on Monday, months after the firm initially rolled out the bitcoin service to investors in the country.

As reported by CoinDesk, Square officially launched the bitcoin purchasing option on its Cash App in January following a testing phase started last year. However, the service was not offered in the states of New York, Georgia, Hawaii and Wyoming due to their more restrictive regulations regarding bitcoin transactions.

In fact, Coinbase suspended its bitcoin buying service in Hawaii last year after regulators in the state imposed a double reserve requirement on the exchange, meaning it would have been required to maintain cash reserves equal to any cryptocurrency funds held for its customers.

In March, though, Square expanded the option to residents in Wyoming after the Cowboy State passed a bill to remove the double reserve requirement for companies dealing with virtual currencies.

As recently reported, Square has also secured a so-called "BitLicense" in New York, making it one of only a handful of crypto services to be allowed to operate in the state.

CoinDesk reached out to Square to ask about any factors that contributed to its changes of policy in Georgia and Hawaii, but did not receive a reply by press time.

The firm previously revealed in its earning reports that its bitcoin service made a small margin of around $420,000 in the second quarter this year – a number that was still double the figure for the initial three months after the service launched.

US map image via Shutterstock