Jack Dorsey’s Block hits $1.3B in Q1 profits, $43M in BTC trading revenue

Block, the pro-Bitcoin (BTC) umbrella company that hosts Cash App, Square and Afterpay, continues its growth in 2022. According to its Shareholder letter, in the first quarter of 2022, gross profits are “up 34% year over year.”

In total, the group netted $1.29 billion in gross profits. However, operating costs were also up “$1.52 billion in the first quarter of 2022, up 70% year over year.”  The group explains that the acquisition of Afterpay, a buy now pay later service, could explain the increasing costs.

In total net Block’s revenues reached $3.96 billion from January to March 2022, down 22% compared to 2022. The group confirms that the drop was “driven by a decrease in Bitcoin revenue.”

Cash App, Block’s Bitcoin retail outlet as well as a mobile payment service, continued to sell Satoshis, although the figures are less promising than the previous quarter:

"Cash App generated $1.73 billion of Bitcoin revenue and $43 million of Bitcoin gross profit during the first quarter of 2022, down 51% and 42% year-over-year, respectively".

In light of Bitcoin prices struggling to break $30,000 in quarter two, the group will take encouragement from an increase in non-Bitcoin revenues in quarter one. On the march by $44 year on year to $2.23 billion, the Block ecosystem, which also includes Tidal and the group TBD is not wholly dependent on crypto market performance.  

Plus, the Square ecosystem of payment solutions for merchants, including point of sale devices, has performed well. It delivered a "gross profit of $661 million, an increase of 41% year-over-year.”

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The quarterly report made 81 mentions of Bitcoin and zero of cryptocurrency, holding true to Jack Dorsey’s Bitcoin-maxi credentials. Furthermore, the report states that over 10 million Cash App accounts have bought Bitcoin. Cash App does not offer the purchase of popular cryptocurrencies such as Ethereum (ETH) or Dogecoin (DOGE). 

In April, it was announced that its customers in the United States could automatically invest a portion of their direct deposit paychecks into Bitcoin using Cash App, or that their “direct deposits” would automatically convert, says the report.