Digital payments company Square, led by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, decided to hit the brakes—at least for the time being—on Bitcoin (BTC) purchases after losing $20 million on its previous crypto investments, the firm’s CFO Amrita Ahuja told Financial News yesterday.
“We don’t have any plans at this point to make further [Bitcoin] purchases. There are no plans at this point to re-evaluate where we are from a treasury standpoint,” Ahuja told the outlet.
As CryptoSlate reported, Square invested $50 million in Bitcoin last October and another $170 million in February. These purchases arguably helped pave the way for other institutional companies to invest in crypto. Giants such as MicroStrategy and Tesla, for example, have purchased a few billions of dollars worth of Bitcoin over the past few months.
However, Square revealed that it lost $20 billion on its Bitcoin investments over the course of Q1 2021 in its quarterly earnings report published on May 6.
Never said never
Meanwhile, Ahuja’s statement doesn’t mean that Square suddenly vowed to “never, never-never buy Bitcoin again,” as she reiterated shortly after the publication went live.
“Our Bitcoin strategy hasn’t changed. We’re deeply committed to this community, including working towards a greener future through our Bitcoin Clean Energy Initiative. And as we shared in February, we continue to assess our Bitcoin investment on an ongoing basis. Nothing new here,” Ahuja tweeted.
Notably, her additional clarification doesn’t really contradict the initial interview since Ahuja similarly explained there that Square will continue to “make further assessments” on the Bitcoin front.
“We’re always evaluating and as ever, I think we’d be customer-led. As we see the evolution of the Bitcoin product or crypto products in general, I think we’ll make further assessments at that point,” she told Financial News.
Growing ecological concerns
Ahuja also noted that Square is very well aware of the growing concerns about the potential impact Bitcoin mining could have on the environment. The company itself has recently published a joint research paper with Ark Invest, arguing that Bitcoin mining might actually become instrumental in creating a “clean energy future.”
“Our position has always been that this is an area that needs innovation in terms of renewables and clean energy, and we want to be a part of that. There’s a broader supply chain question around how renewables and clean energy become a greater part of the blockchain in general, and a greater part of the overall mining and transaction network,” Ahuja noted, adding, “It’s the overall fixed footprint of the network that we need to address.”
Similar sentiments have also been voiced by Elon Musk earlier this week as he announced that Tesla will suspend Bitcoin payments for its electric cars due to environmental concerns.
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