Square's push into the cryptocurrency market is leading to a surge in downloads for the firm's Cash app, surpassing PayPal's popular Venmo mobile money service for the first time.
Cumulative downloads for the Cash App now total 33.5 million, exceeding Venmo's 32.9 million for the first time ever, according to data from Sensor Tower and Nomura.
Square's service grew three times faster than its competitor from PayPal in July, just one month after the firm secured a virtual currency license from the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS).
Nomura Instinet analyst Dan Dolev says: "If the Cash App continues to grow rapidly, the business could reach or even exceed $100 million in sales by 2020, even without deeper active user penetration. With impressive user growth and ongoing decoupling from Bitcoin, we believe Square's monetization efforts are increasingly bearing fruit."
The payments company fully launched the ability to buy and sell bitcoin in its Cash app in January. While revenues from trading in bitcoin hit an impressive $34 million in the first three months, the cost of buying bitcoin to run the service amounted to £33.9 million.
Undeterred by the miniscule returns and bearish sentiment in bitcoin trading, Square is actively working to raise its game in the cryptocurrency markets, tweeting yesterday that it had secured approval to operate the service in all 50 US states.