On October 8, 2020, the public company Square from the United States (US) announced the purchase of 4,709 Bitcoin worth US $ 50 million (Rp738 billion). It turns out that the purchase that was carried out on October 7, 2020 was not as common as many people imagined.
“To maintain transaction privacy and price differences when purchasing, we buy Bitcoin
Through an over-the-counter (OTC) mechanism. The purchasing mechanism is provided by a number of companies, which we usually use as part of our application, namely the Cash App, "said Square in a special attachment.
Square did not specify which company they bought Bitcoin with the OTC mechanism.
Square only refers to one site where the said the number of services is available. Listed there are Circle, itBit, Genesis and Cumberland, as being quite prominent.
As the name implies, the OTC mechanism allows investors to buy Bitcoin in very large amounts, without going through crypto asset exchanges directly, using the usual platform.
OTC is usually preferred on the basis of the privacy of the buyer's identity, besides being able to get a much cheaper price than in the regular market.
Square's move, founded by the Twitter founder, adds to the long list of large companies that buy Bitcoin as part of their investment.
Previously there was MicroStrategy which invested trillions of rupiah worth of Bitcoin, in August and September 2020.
Both Square and MicroStrategy have similar reasons, namely to protect the company's financial value due to poor macroeconomic conditions.
"Given the rapid evolution of crypto assets and unprecedented uncertainty from a macroeconomic perspective including the performance of fiat currencies, we believe now is the right time for us to invest in Bitcoin," Square said in the attached document.
Square argues Bitcoin is an instrument of global economic empowerment. Buying Bitcoin is a way for people around the world to participate in the global monetary system and at the same time secure their value.
"Bitcoin is the future of finance and our investment is important to our mission," said Square, claiming that Bitcoin is about 1 percent of the company's total assets.
The move by Square, which was led by the founder of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, was also quite effective in driving the Bitcoin price into the region of US $ 11 thousand per BTC. That level was unprecedented, at least since early October 2020.