Billionaire investor, Paul Singer, is pushing for the removal of Jack Dorsey as CEO of Twitter. According to a CNBC article dated Feb. 28, the Elliott Management founder and activist investor is concerned about Dorsey’s time being split between two $5 billion-plus companies, and his desire to move to Africa. Singer questions Dorsey’s focus The $40.2 billion hedge fund managed by Singer took a major stake in the social media giant recently and has already nominated four replacement directors to Twitter’s board according to reports. Dorsey has previously faced criticism for his role as CEO of two publicly listed companies; …

Multi platinum-selling recording artist Akon has chosen to build his Akoin cryptocurrency ecosystem on top of the Stellar blockchain. Akoin co-founder and president Jon Karas said they chose to launch the project on Stellar due to sharing similar values. “Akoin selected Stellar’s distributed, hybrid blockchain due to a shared vision for creating global financial inclusion, particularly in areas such as Africa,” he explained in a Feb. 28 announcement. Part of Stellar’s mission is to help bank the unbanked and Akoin’s spokesperson highlighted the fact Stellar was already working with businesses in Africa and could help with the project’s planned Dapps …

Square’s Cash App derived half of its fourth-quarter revenue from Bitcoin (BTC) services. According to a shareholder letter published on Feb. 28, Bitcoin revenue amounted to $178 million during the fourth quarter of 2019, while combined non-Bitcoin revenue totaled $183 million. In total Bitcoin accounted for more than half a billion dollars of revenue across 2019, equating to around $8 million in profits. That’s up from $1.7 million the previous year. The figures show that Bitcoin is increasing in popularity with smaller retail investors on the peer-to-peer payments app, with the last quarter accounting for almost 40% of Square's Bitcoin …

Newly released Blockchain 50 list by major finance publication Forbes features some new entrants like major international association, the United Nations. Shortly after including six blockchain-focused firms into its Fintech 50 list last week, Forbes has released another compilation of 50 global enterprises actively embracing blockchain technology. Newcomers include the United Nations, China Construction Bank, Square and others Published on Feb. 19, the new Forbes’ Blockchain 50 list is the second release of its annual Blockchain 50, which was first introduced in April 2019. Similarly to last year’s edition, the new compilation includes industry giants like Amazon, Microsoft, JPMorgan, Google, …

Perhaps the two most prominent supporters of Bitcoin’s (BTC) Lightning Network have seen their share prices rocket this week as the technology gains fresh recognition. Data covering the share prices of Twitter and sister company Square, the payment gateway which directly supports Bitcoin, shows both companies sealed major gains in recent days. Cash flows towards BTC, Lightning Twitter stock (TWTR) appreciated by close to 20%, while Square (SQ) hit local highs of $81.65, almost 10% up on last week and nearly 25% since Jan. 1. The former recently revealed that it had turned its first quarterly revenues in excess of …

Financial services and mobile payment company Square thinks it has found a way to turn fiat into crypto in real-time point-of-sale transactions. How it works On Jan. 21, the United States Patent Office awarded Square a patent for a technology that the team argues cracks a present barrier in merchant transactions: “All cryptocurrencies face the same drawback in that they are not widely accepted. Presently, cryptocurrencies, like bitcoin, are not accepted by most retail merchants, or even by most online merchants.” The team cited a number of drawbacks to current crypto spending. Transactions take a while to process. Minor advances …

Singer Akon tweeted yesterday, “Just finalized the agreement for AKON CITY in Senegal. Looking forward to hosting you there in the future.” The futuristic city Last year, Cointelegraph reported early plans for the futuristic city. The project portends a “100% crypto-based city with Akoin at the center of transactional life.” The metropolis would become Senegal’s first Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED)-certified city. It is set on a 2,000-acre parcel gifted by the Senegalese president. Reports hint at Mbodience, a short drive from Senegal’s new international airport, as the land in question. Last week, the 45-year-old entrepreneur signed a …

More than 200,000 Robinhood clients have already expressed their intent to use its new fractional stock trading app announced yesterday. Vladimir Tenev, co-founder at Robinhood, said that the clients were “already in line” for the app, considering the early signs as “really promising,” CNBC reports Dec. 13. After Robinhood’s user base recently crossed 10 million accounts, the firm is now valued at $7.6 billion and plans to expand its business to the United Kingdom, according to recent data. Robinhood users can buy slices of Amazon shares and ETFs for just $1 Robinhood, a major California-based financial services firm that is …

According to its Q3 2019 shareholder letter, Square’s Cash App reported many new first-time Bitcoin (BTC) buyers, but low profits related to its Bitcoin business. On Nov. 6, payment processing giant Square issued a letter to shareholders outlining Q3 2019 financial figures, in which it disclosed that the total net revenue for its Cash App was $307 million, while the gross profit resulted in $123 million for Q3. First-time BTC buyers have almost doubled Square’s Cash App saw $148 million in Bitcoin revenue. However, the company endured a whopping $146 million in Bitcoin costs during the third quarter of 2019, …

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and Square, announced that Square’s Cash App is poised to enable users to purchase fractions of stocks — with an entry of as little as $1. In a tweet posted on Oct. 24, Dorsey wrote: “Now anyone can buy $42 or even $1 worth of Berkshire Hathaway A ($BRK.A, or $TSLA or $SFIX or…) instantly and for free right in @CashApp. Really proud of the team for making buying stocks and building wealth accessible to more people. Rolling out now! @WarrenBuffett!” Unspoken ironies As CashApp’s Twitter handle indicated the same day, app users will soon …

Square Crypto has hired Valentine Wallace, Jeffrey Czyz and Arik Sosman to its inaugural developer team. The crypto-focused branch of Jack Dorsey's payment company announced the appointments in a series of tweets on Sept. 19. Wallace joined the company from Lightning Labs, Czyz came from Google and Sosman from Facebook’s Libra. With the latest hires, Square Crypto said it has completed its inaugural developer team. The next step: public opinion The public is now being urged to participate in the decision-making process for its first project. “There’s no project we won’t consider, as long as it improves or proliferates bitcoin,” …

Bitcoin (BTC)-supporting payments service Square Crypto is giving the first of what will be many grants to support open-source Bitcoin projects to BTCPay Foundation. BTCPay receives $100,000 grant On Sept. 14, Square Crypto, the crypto-focused branch of mobile payment company Square, took to Twitter to announce that it is providing BTCPay Foundation with a grant of $100,000 to support BTCPay Server, an open-source cryptocurrency payment processor. BTCPay Server can allocate the funds to create anything, “as long as it’s free and open-source software that improves the security, scalability, privacy, user experience, or fungibility of Bitcoin — or all of the …