Jack Dorsey Shifts His Focus to Square, Crypto Offerings Will Benefit
Jack Dorsey is leaving his role as the CEO of Twitter. Now, with just one CEO name under his belt, Square's crypto offerings could get an upgrade.
Nov. 30 2021, Published 10:29 a.m. ET
It's official—Jack Dorsey has left his post as CEO of Twitter (but once a founder, always a founder). Now, instead of serving as the chief executive of two companies, he's relegated to just one role at digital payments company Square.
Square has been dabbling in crypto, a natural move considering Dorsey's affinity for Bitcoin and other blockchain-based assets. Here's where Square is headed in the cryptocurrency space now that Dorsey's focus is pinpointed.
Jack Dorsey announced his Twitter departure, and Parag Agrawal will take his place.
As the founder of Twitter, Dorsey has played an integral role in the company's forward movement. He was forced out of his role as the CEO in 2008 but returned to the position seven years later. Now, Dorsey announced that he's leaving Twitter on his own terms.
"I’ve decided to leave Twitter because I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders," Dorsey wrote in a statement.
Twitter's current chief technology officer Parag Agrawal will succeed Dorsey as CEO. Agrawal will be faced with increasing the company's revenue, which reached just $3.7 billion in 2020 (much lower than Meta's $86 billion at the time).
Jack Dorsey will focus on Square and crypto.
With a hyper-focus on the fintech platform Square, Dorsey has the potential to make a shift. The company has already started dabbling in cryptocurrency offerings, which makes sense considering Dorsey's affinity for Bitcoin. At a cryptocurrency conference in 2021, Dorsey said, "If I were not at Square or Twitter, I’d be working on bitcoin."
With Twitter out of the picture, Dorsey has the opportunity to incorporate that Bitcoin passion more deeply into his work.
Square is already involved in crypto.
In addition to getting involved in the buy-now-pay-later space (Square bought Australian BNPL company Afterpay for a staggering $29 billion), Square is also coming up on the crypto front.
Square's Cash App offers Bitcoin buying and selling capabilities directly through the app. Dorsey helped implement this feature in 2018.
Also, the company invests heavily in Bitcoin and uses about 5 percent of its liquidity for direct Bitcoin investments. The company's latest purchase happened in February and amounted to about $170 million in Bitcoin.
Square also developed Square Crypto, which is a non-profit organization that builds and funds "free, open-source projects aimed at making Bitcoin the planet's preferred currency."
What's next for Square's crypto offerings?
Square already has more crypto in the works. Currently, it's developing a DeFi platform rooted in Bitcoin. The company even hopes to build mining systems specifically for Bitcoin.
“There isn’t enough capital actually allocated toward crypto innovation, so it takes people like Jack Dorsey to really marshal focus," said Tom Lee, Fundstrat Global Advisors' research lead.
Non-profit Square Crypto is working to make notoriously unsustainable Bitcoin mining more environmentally friendly. The organization has invested in grants for companies like CoinSwap and Lightning Signer as well as a range of independent developers and designers.
Moving forward, Dorsey and Square will likely build a digital world that's more focused on cryptocurrency than ever before.
