Afterpay’s owner Block missed analyst forecasts for its first quarter earnings, as a dive in cryptocurrency prices hurt the company’s bottom line.
Demand for Bitcoin has dropped, as the coin’s value has tumbled 21 per cent this year alone. Block’s bitcoin revenue more than halved in the March quarter, to A$2.43 billion. This is despite the company’s Cash App, which lets users send payments including bitcoin, enjoying a 26 per cent jump in gross profit.
The company’s overall revenue was down 22 per cent year on year to A$5.47 billion, behind analysts’ expectations of A$5.89 billion.
Block’s gross payment volume was A$61.02 billion, also falling well short of the expected A$62.56 billion.
Gross profit was up 34 per cent year on year, however, to A$1.87 billion, with Afterpay adding a cool A$129 million to this for February and March, after the acquisition was finalised in January.
Without Afterpay, profit was up 25 per cent year-on-year, a good sign that Afterpay was a solid purchase for the group.
The group’s net loss was $US291.08 million.
Block did not provide financial guidance for the current quarter.
Despite all this, shares were up 10 per cent in extended trading.