Bitcoin has broken above $15,000 just as Square reported almost 80% of its Q3 Cash App revenue came from the digital token
- Bitcoin is nearing a 3-year-high, just as Jack Dorsey's Square posted a revenue surge of $1.3 billion from the digital token.
- Bitcoin has been one of the big gainers since the election this week, partly because Democrat nominee Joe Biden's lead points to a favorable environment for the risk asset.
- Big corporations such as Square, PayPal, and Microstrategy — who have decided it's a must-have for their balance sheets — have started a revolution for the currency, technical analyst Bill Noble said.
- Including its earnings from Bitcoin, Square's net revenue rose 140% year-on-year to about $3 billion in the third quarter.
Bitcoin hit a 3-year-high by rising 6% on Friday just as US payments firm Square reported that almost 80% of its Cash App revenue came from the digital token.
Bitcoin's value climbed to $15,547 as Joe Biden surpassed President Donald Trump by more than 1,000 votes in Georgia. If Biden wins Pennsylvania's 20 electoral college votes, he will surpass the 270 needed to win the presidency.
A Biden win and a Republican Senate would be great for Bitcoin because his presidency would probably drive the dollar lower, according to Bill Noble, a chief technical analyst at Token Metrics.
Bitcoin's price is also surging because big corporations, such as Square, PayPal, and Microstrategy have decided it's a must-have for their balance sheets. "You're not going to be able to go to a holiday party as a CFO if you don't have Bitcoin," Noble told Business Insider.
Separately on Thursday, Square said it generated $1.63 billion in Bitcoin revenue and $32 million of Bitcoin gross profit during the third quarter of 2020 from its Cash App. Including Bitcoin earnings, Square's net revenue rose 140% year-on-year to about $3 billion in the quarter.
For comparison, Square sold $875 million worth of Bitcoin with $17 million in profit in the second-quarter. The company sold a comparatively smaller amount of $516 million in Bitcoin over the entire year of 2019.
The company emphasized it makes only a small margin by selling Bitcoin, but its third-quarter earnings have risen 15 times year-on-year.
"When customers buy Bitcoin through Cash App, we only apply a small margin to the market cost of Bitcoin, which tends to be volatile and outside our control," the company said in a statement. "Therefore, we believe deducting Bitcoin revenue better reflects the economic benefits as well as our performance from these transactions."