Square Doesn't Plan New Bitcoin Purchases, Says Carbon Footprint Has to Be Addressed

Amrita Ahuja, the chief investment officer of payment company Square, recently told Financial News that there were no plans to buy more Bitcoin:

We don't have any plans at this point to make further purchases. There's no plans at this point to re-evaluate where we are from a treasury standpoint.

Square reported a $20 million impairment loss on its Bitcoin investments in early May, but the fair value of its holdings far exceeds their carrying cost.

Jack Dorsey's company put $50 million into Bitcoin back in October. It then announced a $170 million purchase in February.

Square's Cash App made a killing with Bitcoin sales that generated over $3.5 billion in revenue in the first quarter of this year.

Presently, Bitcoin constitutes five percent of Square's balance sheet. The company will further assess the makeup of its treasury in the future based on the cryptocurrency's evolution.

In sharp contrast to Square, Michael Saylor's business intelligence company, MicroStrategy, disclosed yet another $15 million Bitcoin purchase on Thursday.

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A nagging problem

Ahuja claims that Bitcoin's carbon footprint has to be addressed, urging broader adoption of green energy:

There's a broader supply chain question around how renewables and clean energy become a greater part of 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.

The issue came to the fore earlier this week after Tesla's shocking about-face on Bitcoin payments that tanked the market.

Last month, Square and ARK Invest released a white paper that showed how Bitcoin could incentivize renewable energy. Notably, Tesla CEO Elon Musk agreed with the report just weeks before making his U-turn.