A statement on Wednesday stated that retail stores will be able to automatically convert a portion of their daily sales into bitcoin (BTC) thanks to a partnership between Jack Dorsey’s fintech company Block (SQ), formerly known as Square, and two of its largest platforms, the peer-to-peer payments app Cash App and the merchant services system Square.Through the use of a specialized Cash App account set up to collect 1% to 10% of their store’s sales, qualifying Square users will have access to a tool called Bitcoin Conversions. From there, the service will convert the sales into Bitcoin, which the users can hold, sell, or transfer “as they see fit.”Until it is fully rolled out to Square users in the upcoming months, the service will only be available to sole proprietors or LLCs with one principal.
According to reports, Block surveyed Square vendors as part of a market research project and discovered a need for a service similar to Bitcoin Conversions.According to the company’s news statement, a lot of retailers “are interested in bitcoin and believe it presents a wide range of use cases, such as long term savings and diversifying their businesses’ holdings.”
“Many sellers have told us they want an easy way to access bitcoin and diversify their holdings, so we tapped into Block’s ecosystem to deliver a solution for them. Bitcoin Conversions automates the process for sellers while still giving them flexibility and control over how they manage their bitcoin,” Bitcoin Product Lead at Cash App Michael Rihani told CoinDesk in an email.
Block could benefit financially from this service as well, depending on the number of businesses that join up and the daily volume of capital converted.The new service will charge a flat 1% conversion cost at launch, which is less than the 2.25% fee Cash App charges for the majority of retail bitcoin purchases. However, Block can still make an additional 1% on top of current processing fees. One of the most well-liked methods for introducing people to the bitcoin ecosystem is the Cash App, which seems to be taking center stage in Block’s initiatives centered around bitcoin. Pre-orders for the company’s exclusive Bitkey bitcoin wallet, which is non-custodial and linked to the Cash App to enable “seamless” BTC purchases and transfers, started to arrive last month.
With non-bitcoin sales included, Block’s Cash App business had a total profit of $1.18 billion last year, up 25% from the previous year, while Square’s gross profit was $828 million.At the end of December, the corporation had about 8,038 BTC, which is equivalent to $531 million in today’s currency.