Square Brought in Over $166 Million Through Bitcoin Sales Last Year

Mobile payments firm Square has reported over $166 million in revenue from bitcoin sales last year.

The company filed its financial results for Q4 2018 with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on Wednesday, disclosing that it made overall net revenue of $3.3 billion last year, 5 percent of which came from the cryptocurrency buying service within its Cash App.

While bitcoin sales brought in precisely $166,517,000, the cost of purchasing the cryptocurrency for the year was about $165 million. That left the firm with a net profit from bitcoin sales of $1.69 million.

Looking at Square's quarterly figures, the bitcoin business was notably better in the second half of last year.

Specifically, the firm took $95 million in bitcoin revenues in the second half, compared with about $71 million in the first half. Profit for the second half was $1.047 million, and was $643,000 in H1.

The firm further disclosed that the carrying value of bitcoin held by the firm was $200,000 as of Dec. 31, 2018. The firm said it assesses the carrying value at each reporting date and records an impairment charge if the carrying value exceeds the fair value. However, loss on bitcoin for the year 2018 was “insignificant.”

Square added bitcoin buying and selling option to its Cash App back in November 2017, initially only to a small number of users though. Later, in August 2018, the firm expanded the facility to all 50 U.S. states. The firm received a "BitLicense" from the New York Department of Financial Services (NYDFS) last June, that allowed it to offer crypto services in the state.

Bitcoin and dollars image via Shutterstock