Square Cash App

About Square

Square was co-founded by Twitter Chief Executive Jack Dorsey. The San Francisco-based company was launched in 2009 to provide cheaper, easier payment processing to users around the world. You can find Square’s payment terminals used by merchants in the United States, Canada, Japan, Australia, and the United Kingdom.

Square launched Cash App, originally known as Square Cash, in March 2015. The app originally allowed users to setup a $cashtag where they could send or receive money. Today, the app allows users to easily manage money and send money between friends or businesses – similar to Venmo.

In January 2018, Square announced that certain Cash App users would be able to purchase bitcoin using the app. The bitcoin purchasing option was announced after testing took place throughout 2017. However, the service was only available to users in certain states. Users in New York, Georgia, Hawaii, and Wyoming were unable to purchase bitcoin with the Cash App because each state has more restrictive regulations governing bitcoin transactions.

By the end of the year, things had changed. Square received a BitLicense in New York in summer 2018, making it one of only a handful of crypto services to be allowed to operate in the state. By August 2018, Square had officially expanded its Cash App bitcoin purchasing to all 50 U.S. states.

Today, Square’s Cash App continues to be one of the most popular mobile apps for crypto users and ordinary users alike. With a userbase of around 10 million people, Square’s Cash App aims to continue being one of the best places to buy and sell bitcoin in the future. Along with Robinhood, Square’s Cash App is one of the fastest and easiest ways to buy bitcoin on any mobile device.

Today, Square’s Cash App continues to be one of the best ways to buy bitcoin. It’s fast, easy, and cheap. Keep reading to find out how to buy bitcoin using Square’s Cash App,

How to Buy Bitcoin with the Square Cash App

Buying bitcoin with the Square Cash App is surprisingly easy. If you have already downloaded the app and you have a balance in your account, then you’re ready to buy bitcoin using the following steps:

Step 1) Tap the account balance on your Cash App home screen

Step 2) Swipe left

Step 3) Tap the Buy button

Step 4) Choose the amount of bitcoin you wish to purchase, then tap Buy

Step 5) Confirm your identity using your PIN or Touch ID

Most Cash App users should have no trouble buying bitcoin using the Cash App. The only requirement is that you need to have a positive balance. You may also need to enter additional geographic information.

Since August 2018, the Cash App has supported buying and selling bitcoin in all 50 states in America. The Cash App is currently only available to U.S. residents.

How to Sell Bitcoin Using the Square Cash App

Selling bitcoin using the Square Cash App is also straightforward. You can sell bitcoin at any time by following these steps:

Step 1) Tap the account balance on your Cash App home screen

Step 2) Swipe left

Step 3) Tap Sell

Step 4) Choose the amount of bitcoin you wish to sell

Step 5) Enter your PIN and tap Confirm

That’s it! The amount of bitcoin you have chosen to sell will be sold at the displayed rate.

Square Cash App Bitcoin Fees: How Much Does It Cost to Buy and Sell Bitcoin Using the Square Cash App?

One of the reasons why Square’s Cash App is so popular is its affordability: most transactions on Square’s Cash App are free.

Cash App charges no fees when you buy or sell bitcoin.

However, Cash App’s exchange rate may vary slightly from market rates based on the current spread and how much you’re buying or selling. Here’s how Cash App explains its fee structure on its official website:

“Cash App may apply an exchange rate based on the size of your transaction and a spread determined by volatility across U.S. exchanges. The spread is the difference between the current “bid” and “ask” prices and may be different from when you bought or sold.”

It doesn’t seem that Cash App bundles any fees into its exchange rate. The exchange rate you get with the app is as close to market rates as possible. However, it seems that users who are buying or selling a large amount of bitcoin may get preferential rates compared to those buying smaller amounts.

How to Check the Price of Bitcoin on Square’s Cash App

Once you have purchased bitcoin with your Square Cash App, you’ll want to monitor the price. You can check the price of bitcoin at any time using the following steps:

Step 1) Open the Cash App

Step 2) Tap the available balance on your Cash App home screen

Step 3) Swipe left

If your account balance is $0, then your available balance will just say ‘Cash and BTC’ instead of the dollar amount.

How to Withdraw Bitcoin Using Square’s Cash App

Withdrawing bitcoin using the Square Cash App is easy. You’ll need a minimum account balance of 0.001 BTC to make a withdrawal. You can withdraw your bitcoin to any external bitcoin wallet using the following steps:

Step 1) Tap the profile icon on your Cash App home screen

Step 2) Select bitcoin

Step 3) Press ‘Withdraw Bitcoin’

Step 4) Scan a QR code wallet address or tap Use Wallet Address to enter a bitcoin wallet address manually

Step 5) Confirm the withdrawal by entering your PIN or Touch ID

A withdrawal requires 3 to 6 confirmations. Cash App claims users should expect the funds to appear in a third party bitcoin wallet in about 30 to 40 minutes.

How to Deposit Bitcoin Using Square’s Cash App

Square is actively developing bitcoin deposits. As of April 2019, however, the company is not currently accepting support for bitcoin deposits to third party wallets.

“Support for bitcoin deposits to third party wallets is coming soon,” explains the official website.

For now, you’ll need to deposit money using an accepted deposit method, then buy bitcoin using those funds. You cannot deposit bitcoin directly into your Square Cash App account.

How to Buy Bitcoin with Square’s Cash App Using Credit Cards or Debit Cards

Square’s Cash App supports debit and credit cards, including Visa, Mastercard, American Express, and Discover.

Unfortunately, you cannot deposit cash using a credit card. You can only deposit cash using a debit card (or a linked bank account). As of April 2019, Square’s Cash App does not support buying bitcoin with a credit card.

Once you have deposited cash using a debit card or linked bank account, you can buy bitcoin.

ATMs, PayPal, prepaid bank cards, and business debit cards are also not currently supported.

How to Report Bitcoin Transactions Using Square’s Cash App

Cash App will send you Form 1099-B based on the form W-9 information provided in the app.

Anyone who sold bitcoin during the reporting tax year via Cash App will receive a 1099-B form by February 15th of the following year of your bitcoin sale.

Form 1099-B will be available for download at https://cash.app/account

Cash App is required by law to file a copy of Form 1099-B to the IRS for the applicable tax year. If you have received a Form 1099-B tax form from Cash App, then you can assume the IRS has the same copy of that form.

Your 1099-B from Cash App will display the net cash proceeds from your bitcoin sale. In other words, the form displays how much you made from selling your bitcoin compared to buying it. This amount is found in the ‘Proceeds’ box on the form.

You can figure out your gains and losses and cost basis by referring to your account activity history in Cash App. Using your account history, you can compute your gains and losses over a given period of time. Although Cash App provides basic tax information, the company recommends speaking with a qualified tax advisor for any more specific questions about bitcoin and taxes.

Where Does Cash App Store Its Bitcoin?

Cash App uses an “offline system” to store customer bitcoins:

“Your bitcoin balance is securely stored in our offline system,” explains the official website.

We assume Cash App has a cold storage system it uses to store customer funds. That means funds are held in an offline computer. It’s unclear how much bitcoin Square holds in its hot wallet, or if all bitcoins in cold storage are backed 1:1 with bitcoins owned by customers.

Square also uses additional security features to protect users and their funds, including PCI-DSS level 1 certification and security locks (PIN entry, Touch ID, and Face ID verification).

Another nice feature with Square’s Cash App is the ability to receive a push, email, or text notification any time your account is used. You can lock your card remotely via the app as well.

How to Buy Bitcoin on Square’s Cash App Outside of the United States

Square’s Cash App is only available to U.S. residents. You must have a U.S.-linked bank account to use Cash App.

Cash App and its bitcoin purchasing are available to residents of all 50 U.S. states.

How to Buy Other Cryptocurrencies Using Square’s Cash App

As of April 2019, Square only supports one cryptocurrency: bitcoin. No altcoins are supported at this time.

Robinhood, another popular mobile payment and investing app, supports bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies and is available in most U.S. States.

Welcome to our Square Cash App news page. Here you'll find some of our featured Square Cash Trading App content pieces as well as all our latest Square Cryptocurrency Payment posts.

Twitter's Jack Dorsey Affirms Bitcoin (BTC) Lightning Network Is Coming To Square Cash App

Lightning Network Is Coming To Square Cash App, Jack Dorsey Affirms

Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Twitter, the second largest social media site in the world, has recently affirmed that the Lightning Network will be used on Square Cash, the payment wallet and app of his other company, Square.

He made the announcement today, February 11, on Stephan Livera’s podcast. According to Dorsey, he has reunited with Elizabeth Stark, the CEO of Lightning Labs, in order to discuss the technology.

The answer that Dorsey gave during the podcast when he was asked whether this means that Bitcoin would be used on the app is that it was not a question of “if” but “when” it would actually happen. According to him, the idea is to make the transactions as efficient as possible, so this takes some time but the plan is definitely to include the Lightning Network technology in the product.

Dorsey Believes In The Potential Of Bitcoin… But Only Bitcoin

These comments were made just a few days after Jack Dorsey has personally advocated for Bitcoin on Twitter. He has also accepted an invitation to participate in the Lightning Network’s Torch transaction relay, which is a new kind of initiative that was started in January 2019. The LN’s Torch transaction relay will involve relay transactions which will be used to test the limits of the network and to raise the awareness of the users.

Many other important figures are also very interested in the LN’s Torch initiative, such as the Tesla founder Elon Musk, also known for having his name associated to so many Bitcoin scams.

During the interview, Dorsey was concerned about how the company can continue to work and to help the community in the most positive way, which can be hard sometimes when you are a corporation and he thinks that Bitcoin is a good example of how to help the community.

According to Dorsey, Bitcoin is the first choice of crypto and he believes that it will be a native token of the internet in the future. However, h ehas expressed a severe lack of interest in the other tokens which are in the market right now such as Ripple or Ethereum or all the other many altcoins.

He affirmed that, from all the crypto market, Bitcoin is the token that wants to be a currency the most” and the one that he has chosen in order to bet on.

Yahoo Finance Selects Square As The Company Of The Year, Cites Bitcoin Trading App Expansion

Yahoo Finance Selects Square As The Company Of The Year

Square was selected as Yahoo Finance’s Company of the year. There are many reasons behind this decision, but during the last year it is up around 70% and analysts predict a good future ahead.

Square is a company that was founded by Jack Dorse and Jim McKelvey ten years ago and that has been growing during all this time. Although the company was up 170% in October, it has registered a very important increase since the beginning of the current year.

Over the last year, the company launched three different and new hardware devices. The first one is known as ‘Register,’ an all-in-one point-of-sale (POS) system that targets large sellers. The second one is called Termina, a small brick that allows credit cards to be swiped, inserted or tapped without having to use an iPhone or iPad. Finally, it launched a new version of its Reader. This device can be plugged into a device and allow card swiping.

During the year it has also purchased different companies such as Zesty or Weebly. Zesty has been bought to enhance Caviar, an application specifically built for restaurant delivery. Cash App, a peer-to-peer wallet has also surpassed Venmo in the total number of downloads.

Back in January, the company was traded close to $36 and it reached almost $100 in October. Yahoo Finance wrote that they take into account different variables to define which is the company of the year. Among the things analysed Yahoo Finance explained:

“In making this editorial decision each year, we take into account stock performance, sales growth, product innovation, and analyst sentiment. We also poll our readers on their pick; the top reader picks this year were Amazon, Apple and Tesla, with Square at No. 8.”

At the moment of writing, Square has a market capitalization of $26 billion and has over 2,300 employees. The last companies selected by Yahoo Finance were Facebook in 2015, Nvidia in 2016 and Amazon in 2017. Yahoo explains that Square is becoming a recognized company in the financial services industry.

Jack Dorsey, the CEO of Square, said that they were able to build all-in-one devices. For him, Square Register and Square Terminal are the main reasons why sellers chose Square as a company. With its services, the company is currently offering services to more than 2 million sellers, mostly in the United States. Every single time a credit card is swiped, the company charges 2.75%.

The company focuses on design and usability. The products are built in very high quality, and this can be seen in the number of merchants already using these solutions. Jesse Dorogusker, hardware lead at Square, says that they wanted to create a product that people to have a nice experience when they pay with their credit card. Indeed, Dorogusker worked before at Apple, which has high-quality products that focus on users.

Cash App is an application that was launched back in 2013 and that has been growing during the last few years. Square was able to compete against Venmo that had millions of users all over the United States. The application has received a lot of attention since it added support to bitcoin (BTC).

Indeed, Dan Dolev, an analyst at Nomura Instinet, explained that Cash App downloads surpassed Venmo downloads for the first time in July 2018. This was just some time after Square added support to BTC.

Back in November 2017, the company informed that it was testing Bitcoin solutions for its clients through the Cash App. After the announcement, Square stocks grew 16%. Brian Grassadonia, Cash App lead, says that the intention is to democratizing access to financial tools for customers.

Nevertheless, there are some analysts that suggest that Square took the decision to include Bitcoin support in order to gain attention in the market and receive support from the Bitcoin community. In economic terms, Square made just $420,000 in Bitcoin in the second quarter of the ear and $550,000 during the third quarter.

“They hopped on the crypto bandwagon, got tons of press, and it significantly increase awareness of Cash App and drove a lot of downloads,” explained Josh Beck, an analyst at KeyBank Capital Markets analyst. “To me, it was a brilliant customer acquisition strategy.”

Clearly, Bitcoin does not explain all the growth that this company had during the year. It neither explains by itself why Yahoo Finance took the decision to chose Square as the company of the year. However, Bitcoin played an important role in order to give square exposure to clients that did not know about the application or were just reluctant to use it without crypto-support.

Square Cryptocurrency Payment Network Patent Awarded, Bitcoin Merchant Acceptance Could Skyrocket

BTC As Accepted Payment Method (Some Limitations): Square Wins Patent for Cryptocurrency Payment Network

Digital Payments company, Square has hit the jackpot with its patent this year. It has been reported that the company has successfully won a patent application that allows merchants on their network to accept payments in any currency, including various cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum.

Public documents which were published on August 21st demonstrates that the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has since approved Squares application to patent a system which allows merchants to accept cryptocurrencies alongside the conventional payment methods such as fiat, and cash out into a currency of their choosing. The San Francisco-based company initially filed this patent application back in September 2017.

According to the patent:

“The disclosed technology addresses the need in the art for a payment service capable of accepting a greater diversity of currencies…including virtual currencies including cryptocurrencies (bitcoin, ether, etc.)…than a traditional payment system in a transaction between a customer and a merchant, and specifically for a payment service to solve or ameliorate problems germane to transactions with such currencies. Specifically, the payment service described herein can facilitate real-time (or substantially real-time) transactions, allowing a customer to pay in any currency of their choice, while the merchant can receive payment in a currency of their choice.”

Square wouldn't be the first payment processor to allow merchants to accept payments in cryptocurrency, however. They were beaten to this marker by BitPay, which has been processing a varying number of Bitcoin-based payments since 2011.

What Square does deserve is some serious recognition on the tremendous level of market penetration that they've managed thus far. As a result, adding Cryptocurrency payments to its existing POS system would allow for millions of merchants that already use the network to accept Bitcoin, all without having . to go through any lengthy onboarding process, or manually convert any cryptocurrency funds into fiat.

Eliminating Bitcoin Transaction Latency

Most notably, the patent also details a process that also allows the POS system that will eliminate latency in transactions involving cryptocurrency, ensuring that even Bitcoin transactions (which is often criticized for their slower confirmation times) can be approved with a good degree speed relative to conventional credit card transactions.

The payment service will manage to achieve this by maintaining a private blockchain that records transactions from Square-managed wallets in real-time, which allows the POS system to quickly identify the changed balances before the transactions are written to the public blockchain. According to the patent, this doesn't completely eliminate the risk of double-spend attacks, but it transfers that risk from the merchant to the payment service.

The patent also notes that transaction latency could be eliminated by simply having user funds in a sort of custody under the payment network itself. This allows Square to simply update its internal ledger rather than writing any transactions to the blockchain.

Is Square Preparing to Roll Out Bitcoin Payments?

Well, of course there isn't a guarantee that Square will actually manage to implement its patented cryptocurrency payment network into its POS service. The Bank of America, for example, has applied for a large number of patents in the blockchain world. This was a strategy that one BoA VP regarded as ‘meaningless‘ public relations plays to appear positive towards blockchain technology.

However, Square, unlike many firms that have toyed with blockchain research, is run by a vocal cryptocurrency proponent.

So far, Square CEO Jack Dorsey has been on the record in the past, stating that he openly believes Bitcoin could be the Internet's future native currency within ten years.

“The internet deserves a native currency. It will have a native currency. I don’t know if it will be Bitcoin or not,” he said during an interview in May. “I hope it will be bitcoin.”

Dorsey has also gone on record, saying, during a recent earnings call, that it's in Square's interest that Bitcoin will extend beyond simply buying and selling using it. He, instead, regards it as having the power, along with cryptocurrencies as a whole, as a ‘transformational technology.'

What's more, the patent itself also includes reference drawings which appear to show Bitcoin payments being executed through Square's existing peer to peer Cash App, through which the firm began to offer Bitcoin trading as recent as late 2017 and early 2018.

Currently, trading volumes on the app have, so far, proven to be relatively minor in comparison to the global spot market. Regardless, Square's CFO, Sarah Friar has stated recently that the company has seen ‘real growth' in its Bitcoin user base.

Square Cash App Gets NY Virtual Currency License, Genesis Trading Partnership

Payment Platform Square Receives Virtual Currency License From the State of New York

The New York Department of Financial Services (DFS) has granted a virtual currency license to Square, Inc. The DFS announced the news via a press release earlier today.

“DFS is pleased to approve Square’s application and welcome them to New York’s expanding and well-regulated virtual currency market,” explained DFS Superintendent Maria T. Vullo in a statement.

“DFS continues to work in support of a vibrant and competitive virtual currency market that connects and empowers New Yorkers in a global marketplace while ensuring strong state-regulatory oversight is in place.”

The regulatory authority claims they completed a “comprehensive review” of Square’s application and were satisfied with the firm’s anti-money laundering, anti-fraud, capitalization, consumer protection, and cybersecurity policies.

Square is one of the world’s most popular payment processing platforms. The company makes hardware that allows retailers to accept credit cards and contactless payments. Square software, meanwhile, provides everything from payment processing to financing and business analytics.

In the virtual currency industry, Square is best-known for Cash App, which provides users with a range of financial services – including an easy way to buy and sell bitcoin. Anyone can download Cash App for iOS or Android, then seamlessly purchase bitcoin through the app.

Genesis Reveals Partnership with Square After DFS Announcement

After the New York DFS announced the approval of Square’s virtual currency license, cryptocurrency trading giant Genesis Global Trading officially announced revealed their partnership with the payment platform. In fact, Genesis Global Trading revealed that they had been working with Square for over a year.

Meanwhile, Barry Silbert, founder and CEO of Digital Currency Group (the parent company behind Genesis), tweeted:

The New York Department of Financial Services has now approved nine companies for virtual currency charters or licenses. Other firms granted a virtual currency license from the DFS include Xapo, Genesis Global Trading, bitFlyer USA, Coinbase, XRP II, and Circle Internet Financial.

Square Cryptocurrency Payment Network Patent Awarded, Bitcoin Merchant Acceptance Could Skyrocket

BTC As Accepted Payment Method (Some Limitations): Square Wins Patent for Cryptocurrency Payment Network

Digital Payments company, Square has hit the jackpot with its patent this year. It has been reported that the company has successfully won a patent application that allows merchants on their network to accept payments in any currency, including various cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin or Ethereum.

Public documents which were published on August 21st demonstrates that the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has since approved Squares application to patent a system which allows merchants to accept cryptocurrencies alongside the conventional payment methods such as fiat, and cash out into a currency of their choosing. The San Francisco-based company initially filed this patent application back in September 2017.

According to the patent:

“The disclosed technology addresses the need in the art for a payment service capable of accepting a greater diversity of currencies…including virtual currencies including cryptocurrencies (bitcoin, ether, etc.)…than a traditional payment system in a transaction between a customer and a merchant, and specifically for a payment service to solve or ameliorate problems germane to transactions with such currencies. Specifically, the payment service described herein can facilitate real-time (or substantially real-time) transactions, allowing a customer to pay in any currency of their choice, while the merchant can receive payment in a currency of their choice.”

Square wouldn't be the first payment processor to allow merchants to accept payments in cryptocurrency, however. They were beaten to this marker by BitPay, which has been processing a varying number of Bitcoin-based payments since 2011.

What Square does deserve is some serious recognition on the tremendous level of market penetration that they've managed thus far. As a result, adding Cryptocurrency payments to its existing POS system would allow for millions of merchants that already use the network to accept Bitcoin, all without having . to go through any lengthy onboarding process, or manually convert any cryptocurrency funds into fiat.

Eliminating Bitcoin Transaction Latency

Most notably, the patent also details a process that also allows the POS system that will eliminate latency in transactions involving cryptocurrency, ensuring that even Bitcoin transactions (which is often criticized for their slower confirmation times) can be approved with a good degree speed relative to conventional credit card transactions.

The payment service will manage to achieve this by maintaining a private blockchain that records transactions from Square-managed wallets in real-time, which allows the POS system to quickly identify the changed balances before the transactions are written to the public blockchain. According to the patent, this doesn't completely eliminate the risk of double-spend attacks, but it transfers that risk from the merchant to the payment service.

The patent also notes that transaction latency could be eliminated by simply having user funds in a sort of custody under the payment network itself. This allows Square to simply update its internal ledger rather than writing any transactions to the blockchain.

Is Square Preparing to Roll Out Bitcoin Payments?

Well, of course there isn't a guarantee that Square will actually manage to implement its patented cryptocurrency payment network into its POS service. The Bank of America, for example, has applied for a large number of patents in the blockchain world. This was a strategy that one BoA VP regarded as ‘meaningless‘ public relations plays to appear positive towards blockchain technology.

However, Square, unlike many firms that have toyed with blockchain research, is run by a vocal cryptocurrency proponent.

So far, Square CEO Jack Dorsey has been on the record in the past, stating that he openly believes Bitcoin could be the Internet's future native currency within ten years.

“The internet deserves a native currency. It will have a native currency. I don’t know if it will be Bitcoin or not,” he said during an interview in May. “I hope it will be bitcoin.”

Dorsey has also gone on record, saying, during a recent earnings call, that it's in Square's interest that Bitcoin will extend beyond simply buying and selling using it. He, instead, regards it as having the power, along with cryptocurrencies as a whole, as a ‘transformational technology.'

What's more, the patent itself also includes reference drawings which appear to show Bitcoin payments being executed through Square's existing peer to peer Cash App, through which the firm began to offer Bitcoin trading as recent as late 2017 and early 2018.

Currently, trading volumes on the app have, so far, proven to be relatively minor in comparison to the global spot market. Regardless, Square's CFO, Sarah Friar has stated recently that the company has seen ‘real growth' in its Bitcoin user base.