Why did the Twitter owner’s payments company buy Bitcoin worth $ 50 million?

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Jack Dorsey’s Square payments firm invested $ 50 million in Bitcoin last week. It bought 4,709 bitcoins at an average price of $ 10,617 per Bitcoin, he said in an official statement.

Square’s investment represents one percent of its total assets at the end of the second quarter of 2020.

Bitcoin is a peer-to-peer virtual currency that uses blockchain technology to facilitate instant payments. Founded in 2008, the cryptocurrency is open source with a public design, allowing everyone to participate.

It is the largest cryptocurrency in the world in terms of market capitalization and trading volume, according to cryptocurrency tracking site CoinMarketCap.

Amrita Ahuja, Square’s Chief Financial Officer, expects Bitcoin to have “the potential to be a more ubiquitous currency in the future.”

“For a company that is building products based on a more inclusive future, this investment is a step on that journey,” he added.

This isn’t the first time Square has shown interest in cryptocurrency. The San Francisco-based company launched Cash App, a Bitcoin trading app in 2018 that enables the buying and selling of the cryptoasset. In 2019, the company formed Square Crypto, an independent team focused on contributing to Bitcoin’s open source work.

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In September 2020, Square also established the Cryptocurrency Open Patent Alliance (COPA), a non-profit organization that encourages crypto innovation and open access to patented cryptographic inventions, Jack Dorsey announced in a tweet.

Dorsey said he believes Bitcoin will become the internet’s largest single currency within a decade, in an interview with Times in 2018. Cryptocurrency will overcome these obstacles and be used to buy everyday items such as coffee, he added.