Bitcoin and other forms of digital currency may have been hit hard pricewise over the last 13 months, but Block – the payment company formerly known as Square and started by ex-Twitter head Jack Dorsey – has posted strong growth revenue and profits for the fourth quarter of 2022 primarily thanks to its Cash App digital wallet protocol.
Block and Bitcoin… A Perfect Match?
Bitcoin suffered its worst year on record in 2022. The world’s number one digital currency by market cap rose to a new all-time high of about $68,000 per unit at the end of 2021, and everyone truly thought the currency was on top of the financial ladder and could never be brought down. Boy, were they wrong!
From there, the currency began a series of price dips that ultimately saw it end 2022 in the mid-$16K range, thus having lost more than 70 percent of its overall value. It was a sad and ugly sight to see, but things didn’t quite stop there. Many additional cryptocurrencies – including Ethereum – decided to follow in BTC’s footsteps, and by the time they were all done traveling through the doldrums, the crypto space had lost more than $2 trillion in overall valuation.
The good news is that while the price of bitcoin and various other digital currencies may have suffered greatly, this didn’t stop people from exchanging, trading, or using crypto, and the profits recorded by Block are legitimate proof of this.
The company posted more than $1.6 billion in gross profit during the final three months of 2022. This was up nearly 40 percent from the $1.2 billion posted at the end of 2021. In addition, revenue stood at $4.65 billion, considerably higher than the $4.1 billion posted for the same period in 2021.
The big clincher is that Cash App – saw a 64 percent boost in its overall gains, suggesting crypto use didn’t die down within the company’s customer walls no matter how bearish things got. Jack Dorsey – the current CEO of Block – stated in a recent interview:
Looking ahead to 2023 and beyond, we are focused on balancing growth and efficiency and will prioritize speed, agility, and accountability.
Believing in Crypto No Matter What Happens
In many ways, Jack Dorsey shares a lot with figures like Michael Saylor, the former head of software giant MicroStrategy. He believes in bitcoin, and no matter how many negative notes it strikes, his faith in the digital asset never truly dies down. He is confident it will lead to great and powerful things for those seeking new financial tools and capabilities.
About five years ago, Dorsey commented that he wouldn’t be surprised if in ten years from then, bitcoin became a global currency that all countries were using. He also said it had the potential to become the world’s only currency.
