It has been six years since one of the largest financial players in payments supported bitcoin.
In fact, November 14, 2017 marks the date that Jack Dorsey’s Square, now rebranded as Block, began allowing customers to buy and sell bitcoin. The move came at a time when the price of bitcoin was rising in the wake of the block size wars, with the price surpassing $7,000 on its way to a high of $20,000 that year.
Fast forward to today, and the price of bitcoin has risen by a staggering 400% since Block’s inaugural foray into facilitating cryptocurrency transactions, marking a notable chapter in the changing landscape of bitcoin finance.
Still, what is most notable is that this event apparently played a role in convincing Jack Dorsey, then co-founder and CEO of Twitter, to become an ardent supporter of bitcoin. His public endorsement and active involvement in bitcoin now show a deep belief in the transformative power of technology.
Today, Block is building a commercial bitcoin hardware wallet as well as a decentralized exchange, among other bitcoin projects.
However, all thisbitcoin/?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAABBA0u0Tft22oaqvhlORJwduHi7tntL7y4eHW53FtgMfc71evTySoV9XoXHnyO5d3UpE_WfWspR1lBNRxCOkw4gIJZyP9J4JTwDHxlQ8BNO9h3IQq8pYJUJWTDAIdr22a6KDLrYSP9ensm4imfkLMv-DWwo8xEzmkfknqLuxqTa-“>started in 2017, when Square Cash quietly tested the waters of bitcoin support, allowing a select few users to buy and sell bitcoin directly within the app. The measure was confirmed by the company, acknowledging the testing phase with a basic interface showing balances in USD and btc.
“We are exploring how Square can make this experience faster and easier, and have rolled out this feature to a small number of Cash App customers. We believe cryptocurrencies can greatly impact people’s ability to participate in the global financial system and us”. “We’re excited to learn more here,” a Square representative said at the time.
Interestingly, the focus during the test was primarily on buying and selling, deviating from Square Cash’s conventional emphasis on money transfers.
Today, Block makes billions of dollars worth of bitcoin sales per quarter, and bitcoin makes up a large percentage of the financial company’s revenue.
