Jack Dorsey’s Twitter departure clears way for Square and bitcoin focus

Jack Dorsey announced he’s stepping down from his role as CEO of Twitter, but the move may allow for a sharper focus on Square, the payments company where he will remain CEO.

Why should we care?
Square is a payments firm Dorsey co-founded in 2009. Winding down his role at Twitter, say industry watchers, will allow Dorsey to become razor focused on the expansion of Square’s operations, including the company’s deeper penetration into retail, cryptocurrency, and decentralized finance. The company’s recent $29B acquisition of Afterpay allows the company to build its presence in the ‘buy now, pay later’ space. On crypto, Dorsey is passionate about enhancing access – his Twitter bio just says “#bitcoin” – and using Square as a vehicle to do that. Dorsey previously said Bitcoin would unite the country and the world. Square currently holds 5% of its cash reserves in bitcoin and purchased $170M in bitcoin. Square’s Cash App also allows users to buy and sell bitcoin, and the company is reportedly working on a decentralized finance system based on bitcoin that will be “an open developer platform with the sole goal of making it easy to create non-custodial, permissionless, and decentralized financial services.”