Square CFO: There's "absolute reason" for all companies to have Bitcoin on their balance sheets

Amrita Ahuja, chief financial officer (CFO) of payments giant Square, believes that more companies need to add cryptocurrencies to their balance sheets.

In an interview with Fortune magazine’s CFO Daily on Sunday, Ahuja said she believes bitcoin and cryptocurrencies “expand access to financial services,” especially as companies think about going global.

“For every balance sheet, there is absolutely a case for using Bitcoin,” Ahuja said of user adoption and the emerging trend of large companies adopting the nascent asset class.

“We have about 5% of our cash in bitcoin on our balance sheet,” Ahuja said. “We intend to hold it for the long term.”

Square is the company behind Cash App, a peer-to-peer payments platform that allows users to buy cryptocurrencies and store them in digital wallets.

"Last year, 3 million customers bought and sold Bitcoin on our platform; in January, we had 1 million new customers in the Bitcoin business alone." Ahuja said Square hopes to continue to support the widespread adoption and promotion of cryptocurrencies. Square announced on March 17 that Cash App users will no longer be charged transaction fees for sending or receiving Bitcoin.

In October 2020, Square invested $50 million in Bitcoin, followed by another $170 million in February. According to earnings estimates, the company has been seeing returns on these investments.

As for Bitcoin’s impact on the environment, Square’s clean energy initiative has invested $10 million to help Bitcoin mining adopt clean energy faster. The company also intends to reinvest all proceeds from the investment into clean energy initiatives.

Ahuja said Square will continue to evaluate its strategy based on the “evolution of the bitcoin ecosystem”