American financial services, merchant services aggregator and mobile payment company Square Inc. has announced it purchased 3,318 Bitcoins for around $170 million.
Square Inc, which is led by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, cited cryptocurrency as ‘an instrument of economic empowerment, providing a way for individuals to participate in a global monetary system and secure their own financial future.’
“Combined with Square’s previous purchase of $50 million in bitcoin, this represents approximately five per cent of Square’s total cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities as of December 31, 2020.” it said in the statement adding that it plans to review its investment relative to other investments on a regular basis.
This is Square’s second major investment in Bitcoin, as it had previously bought $50 million worth of Bitcoin in October 2020.
Bitcoin Performance
On Tuesday, Bitcoin continued to decline as it posted losses to trade at $48,121 as at 4:15 pm Eastern Time, falling by more than 10%.
On Monday, Bitcoin fell by over 16% and touched a daily low of $47,821, levels last seen on February 16.
The decline was after United States Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that Bitcoin was “inefficient” and that it is ‘often used in illicit finance.’
At the same time, Elon Musk, one of the biggest supporters of cryptocurrency over the weekend tweeted that prices of Bitcoin and smaller rival Ether “do seem high.”
The tweet came just two weeks after Tesla said it had purchased $1.5 billion of Bitcoin and was going to accept cryptocurrency as a means of payment for its electric cars.
Bitcoin crossed the $57,000 mark on Saturday to hit a new record high. The recent rally has been driven by news that major institutions businesses, such as Tesla and BlackRock are investing in cryptocurrency.
READ;
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