Block šŸ§ˆšŸ’² (SQ) - Stock discussion

The tech that helps power Cash Appā€™s debit card? Other fintechs, including Plaid which also works with Robinhood

Marqeta

Headquarters: Oakland, California

Debit card transaction processor gives companies that issue cards to workers or customers more control over which transactions are approved. Grocery delivery service Instacart uses Marqeta to control which items its order-fillers can buy, reducing fraud. Square uses Marqeta for its fast-growing Cash App, which lets consumers make retail purchases, transfer money and buy stocks.

Funding: $378 million from Visa, 83 North (formerly Greylock Israel), Coatue Management and others; latest valuation of $1.9 billion

Bona fides: Has doubled revenue every year since 2016, reaching more than $300 million in 2019, Forbes estimates.

Cofounder & CEO: Jason Gardner, 50, who founded a rent payments company in 2004 that was acquired by MoneyGram for $28 million.

Plaid

Headquarters: San Francisco

Making its fifthā€”and assuming its pending acquisition by Visa goes through, lastā€”appearance on this list, Plaid connects payment apps like Square Cash and personal finance apps like Acorns to usersā€™ bank accounts to transfer and track funds. Doubled number of customers in 2019 to 2,600, while expanding to the U.K., Spain, France and Ireland.

Funding: $310 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Kleiner Perkins, NEA and others; latest valuation: In January, Visa agreed to buy Plaid for $5.3 billion, double its value a year prior.

Bona fides: Works with most of the largest fintech apps in the U.S., including Venmo, Robinhood and Coinbase.

Cofounders: CEO Zach Perret, 32, and former CTO William Hockey, 30. They met as fledgling Bain consultants before founding Plaid in 2012.

Squareā€™s physical payment terminals are taking ā€œtake a hitā€.

Shares are 1/2 of the levels not that long ago.

Square is now a limited Bank which can lend money. Big milestone.

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Provided how tough it has been for new challengers in the US when it comes to all things banking license-related, this is indeed a huge milestone.

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Even more so as for challenger banks the biggest problem has been distribution. Cash App on the other hand already has 24 million usersā€¦

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Square Financial Services and Square Capital

Because theyā€™re a ā€œbankā€ too, Square can take part in the relief programme.

This couldā€™ve been Robinhood too, if they got their licence. It is a lost opportunity for the ā€œfirst moverā€. (Check Cash Appā€™s execution of stock trading in the US, theyā€™re a major threat to RH given that both are popular among younger people: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0Fho7sbgbo.)

1/4 Square Capital has received U.S. Treasury and SBA approval to be a PPP lender, and we will start rolling out our PPP loan applications this week. We continue to work with our partner Celtic Bank as they have existing expertise as a leading SBA lender.

We will notify sellers when their application is available via Square Dashboard, starting with employers whose application data we can verify automatically. We expect to expand access to more small businesses soon.

3/4 We know sellers need financial support now more than ever, and weā€™re committed to making funding accessible to as many small businesses as possible.

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Major ?

Jay-Z on the board? I get heā€™s generally done well with his businesses but theyā€™re mostly consumer discretionary: Music, Alcohol etc

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The transaction has an implied value of approximately US$29 billion (A$39 billion) based on the closing price of Square common stock on July 30, 2021, and is expected to be paid in all stock.

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Another generic name

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image

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The Square Icon was way better

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Might be a stupid question but Iā€™ll ask anyway. Why is the PE at over 90%?

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Probably there Crypto Investment

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  • $sq
    currently, at $37b market cap

What would it be worth in 5-10 years?
~2030 CashApp is the biggest international retail bank.
:money_with_wings: Square+CashApp is the major payment network
:cloud: Square services is the most popular SME biz software
+blockchain wildcard!:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

capital at risk :four_leaf_clover::laughing:

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Block: How Inflated User Metrics and ā€œFrictionlessā€ Fraud Facilitation Enabled Insiders To Cash Out Over $1 Billion

Blockā€™s Response

Hindenburg Research shorts Jack Dorseyā€™s payments group Block [FT]

https://archive.is/UH2e6

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I donā€™t believe such things, usually it just for shorting

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