As Bitcoin Explodes Payment Firm Square Buys $170M Worth of It

Payments firm Square, led by Jack Dorsey, the CEO of social media giant Twitter, has went on a Bitcoin buying frenzy.

The company has bought $170 million worth of the number one digital asset in the world, Bitcoin.

Square announced the big news on Tuesday, saying it had purchased roughly 3,318 bitcoins for the $170 million sum.

It was not long ago that electric vehicle maker Tesla also reported that it had purchased Bitcoin. Tesla had bought a whopping $1.5 billion worth of it.

Square has reported that revenue in the fourth quarter more than doubled to $3.16 billion, helped by a jump in online payments due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In other news, Dorsey is being sued by a shareholder, claiming he breached his fiduciary duties to the social media company by giving advertisers broad access to users’ private data.

The shareholder, suing on behalf of Twitter, alleged this week that the other company Dorsey heads, payments company Square (SQ), “benefitted wildly from this disregard for privacy.”

According to Monday’s awsuit, filed in Delaware Chancery Court by the Ellen F. Greenberg Trust, a common stockholder in Twitter, the company’s user data practices prompted the Federal Trade Commission to notify the company in 2020 that it had violated its 2011 consent decree with the agency and a provision of the Federal Trade Commission Act.

The 2011 consent degree required Twitter to improve cybersecurity practices and comply with users’ preferences for handling private data.

The plaintiff is asking the court for an order requiring Dorsey to either devote himself full-time to his position as CEO of Twitter, or resign.

“As Dorsey permitted expansive access to Twitter’s user information, the members of Twitter’s board looked the other way and failed to take any action to ensure the

Company’s compliance with the 2011 FTC Order,” the lawsuit reads.

Twitter declined to comment on the suit.

Disclaimer: We have no position in any of the companies mentioned and have not been compensated for this article.