Square’s bitcoin-enabled Cash App continues to emerge as the shining jewel in the company’s portfolio, with income from the app driving a surge in Square’s net revenue and gross profit in the first quarter. Square said Cash App delivered Q1 total net revenue of $4.04 billion and gross profit of $495 million, up 171% year over year.
Of that total net revenue, $3.51 billion was generated from Square’s bitcoin services.
Elsewhere on the balance sheet, Square reported total net revenue of $5.06 billion with adjusted EPS of 41 cents. Wall Street was looking for earnings of 16 cents a share on revenue of $3.36 billion.
The company’s Q1 net income was $39 million, or 9 cents a share, with gross profit of $964 million, up 79% over the same quarter last year.
The company’s first quarter transactional revenue came in at $960 million. Revenue from its software subscription and data products, including Square Capital and Cash App, came to $558 million. The company’s hardware revenue was $29 million. Another key metric for Square is its gross payment volume (GPV), which it said came to $33.1 billion.
Square Capital facilitated roughly 136,000 loans in the first quarter, totaling $923 million, up 68% year over year. Meanwhile, Square said it invested $170 million in bitcoin in February, which turned into a fair value investment of $472 million as of the end of March. The company said it plans to hold the investment for the long term.
For the current quarter, Wall Street is expecting earnings of 29 cents a share with revenue of $3.52 billion. Shares of Square were up nearly 2% after hours.
