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Square gets a Bitcoin boost with revenue up 266%

• PragmaticPulp 5y ago
  > Square reported $3.5 billion in bitcoin revenue, up 11 times year over year. But bitcoin gross profit was only $75 million, or approximately 2% of revenue. What is going on with these numbers? How is Square booking $3.5 billion of Bitcoin-related revenue but only $75m of Bitcoin related profit? What are they counting as Bitcoin revenue?
  • AndrewDucker 5y ago
    Their app allows users to buy and sell Bitcoin.
  • neximo64 5y ago
    They are counting the volume transacted as revenue, and gross profits as the transaction fee
    • oogabooga123 5y ago
      Can they get in trouble for this? Pretty sure this violates generally accepted accounting principles, no?
    • yumraj 5y ago
      If that is true, isn’t that exactly what Groupon used to do when they got in trouble once they went public. Groupon used to count dollars transacted as revenue, which is fundamentally incorrect.
      • neximo64 5y ago
        You buy from a vendor (coinbase?) and sell to a customer (cash app) + markup. Its not exactly the same as groupon it's more similar to selling cans of soda.