There's Absolutely A Case For Every Balance Sheet To Have Bitcoin On It, Square CFO Believes

Amrita Ahuja, CFO of Square Inc SQ, thinks Bitcoin could be an essential part of a company’s balance sheet, based on her recent comments to Fortune.

What Happened: “There’s absolutely a case for every balance sheet to have Bitcoin on it. We see Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies as expanding access to financial services, especially when you think more globally”, she said, referring to Square’s $50 million Bitcoin purchase in October 2020, followed by an additional $170 million in February 2021.

According to Ahuja, Square’s Cash App had 3 million customers buying and selling Bitcoin last year, but this January alone accounted for 1 million new Bitcoin customers.

“The investment that we made on our balance sheet for Bitcoin represents about 5% of our cash; we intend to hold for the long term here,” she said.

Why It Matters: Square’s $473 million of Bitcoin holdings accounts for 5% of its cash reserves but 0.38% of the digital asset’s total supply.

Since there will only be 21 million Bitcoin in total, the existing supply of Bitcoin in circulation relative to its demand plays an important part in the dynamics of its price.

An ARK Invest research report from earlier this year found that if all S&P 500 companies were to allocate 1% of their cash to bitcoin, its price could increase by approximately $40,000.

The same report also found that if companies were to allocate 10% of its corporate cash reserves to Bitcoin, the potential price increase could be as high as $400,000.