Reuters
Square's chief financial officer Amrita Ahuja told Financial News on Friday that her company won't buy more bitcoin after incurring millions in losses on previous purchases.
"We don't have any plans at this point to make further purchases," Ahuja said.
The CFO added that there are "lots of other opportunities" for Square to "learn with bitcoin," however, and said the company is "always evaluating" possibilities in the space.
"I think we'd be customer-led," Ahuja said. "As we see the evolution of the bitcoin product or crypto products in general, I think we'll make further assessments at that point."
Square bought 4,709 bitcoin for $50 million back in 2020 and then an additional 3,318 bitcoin for $170 million in February. In the second purchase, the company paid more than $51,200 per bitcoin, according to calculations from Reuters.
Square now holds 8,027 bitcoin worth over $400 million at current prices.
The digital payments firm has been a long-time proponent of cryptocurrencies, and in particular, of bitcoin.
Square's Cash App platform was one of the first major exchanges to allow customers to buy the digital asset.
Square generated $3.51 billion of revenue and $75 million of gross profit from its bitcoin offerings in the first quarter of 2021, according to a shareholder letter from the firm.
The company also released a jointly produced study with Cathie Wood's Ark Invest in April titled "Bitcoin is key to an abundant, clean energy future."
Wood said in a tweet describing the companies' findings that evidence in the study disproves the myth that bitcoin mining processes are damaging to the environment.
"Instead, as crypto mining, energy storage, and AI technologies converge, the adoption of renewable energy is likely to accelerate!" Wood said.
Square's CEO, Jack Dorsey, has also been consistently behind bitcoin. In a conference call after Square bought $170 million of bitcoin earlier this year, Dorsey said, "the Internet needs a native currency, and we believe bitcoin is it."
CFO Amrita Ahuja even told Forbes in a late March interview that "there's absolutely a case for every balance sheet to have bitcoin on it."
Now though, new comments from Ahuja and Square show a different tone towards bitcoin.
Ahuja said in her Friday interview with Financial News that Square has "no plans at this point to re-evaluate where we are from a treasury standpoint" in regards to cryptocurrencies.
The CFO added that Square's position with respect to bitcoin "has always been that this is an area that needs innovation in terms of renewables and clean energy."
"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...It's the overall fixed footprint of the network that we need to address," she added.
The change in tone came after Tesla halted purchases of its vehicles using bitcoin, citing the environmental impact of the cryptocurrency.
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