Block (NYSE: $SQ) Announces Job Cuts Amid Economic UncertaintyBlock Inc., (NYSE: NYSE:SQ ) led by Jack Dorsey, has announced plans to trim its workforce by 112 jobs on March 30th, as part of its efforts to streamline operations and reduce costs amidst economic uncertainty. The fintech giant's decision to downsize has sparked discussions about the broader challenges facing the tech industry and the strategies companies are employing to adapt to changing market dynamics.
The move, disclosed under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, underscores Block's commitment to adjusting its operations in response to prevailing economic conditions. With concerns over high-interest rates and market instability looming large, companies across various sectors, including tech giants like Amazon, Alphabet, and Microsoft, have resorted to layoffs as a means of cost-cutting and restructuring.
Block ( NYSE:SQ ), which also owns the music streaming platform TIDAL, initiated job cuts in January as part of its ongoing efforts to streamline its workforce. The company's decision to reduce its headcount comes amidst scrutiny from short-seller Hindenburg, which took a short position on the company last year, alleging discrepancies in user numbers and customer acquisition costs.
Despite facing challenges and skepticism from investors, Block ( NYSE:SQ ) remains focused on its long-term strategic objectives. The California-based payments firm has committed to reducing its workforce from just over 13,000 employees at the end of the third quarter to 12,000 by the end of 2024. Additionally, Block ( NYSE:SQ ) has announced plans to embark on a broader cost-savings program aimed at enhancing operational efficiency and driving sustainable growth.
Block Inc., ( NYSE:SQ ) shares surged after the payments company reported results and first-quarter expectations that exceeded analysts’ estimates.
Block ( NYSE:SQ ) reported full-year adjusted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization of $1.79 billion, beating its own guidance of $1.66 billion to $1.68 billion. The company said it expects adjusted Ebitda of $570 million to $590 million for the first quarter, higher than analysts’ estimates of $514.5 million. Fourth-quarter operating expenses rose 20% to $2.16 billion.
Block
What Is Bitcoin Halving? Here's All You Need to KnowWhat Is Bitcoin Halving? Here's All You Need to Know.
Halving is the event of slashing Bitcoin's mining rewards every 210,000 blocks, or roughly every four years. Read all about it here.
Table of Contents
Overview
What Is Bitcoin Halving?
When Is the Next Bitcoin Halving?
Deep Dive into Blockchain
How Are Miners Rewarded?
Why Halving Matters?
The Big Picture
What About Bitcoin’s Price?
Halving and the Way Forward
Overview
Bitcoin’s halving is a milestone event for the crypto space. Essentially, halving pushes back the moment we see all 21 million BTC tokens pulled out of their cryptographic hash puzzles.
Satoshi Nakamoto, the individual or group who created Bitcoin , programmed it to a fixed amount of 21 million coins. In other words, the total amount of Bitcoin can never exceed 21 million. Presently, miners have picked up just over 19 million through a process called Bitcoin mining.
This amount is over 90% of the total supply with mining having started with the creation of Bitcoin 15 years ago. That leaves just about 2 million tokens to be unearthed before the final Bitcoin enters our dimension. How long should we wait until this mammoth of a milestone happens? More than a century, or around the year 2140 , according to forecasting wizards.
The logic behind this peculiar mechanism lies in the so-called halving and this guide will help you understand all about it.
What Is Bitcoin Halving?
Halving, in its simplest form, is the process of gradually reducing the rewards of Bitcoin mining. As we mentioned, Satoshi Nakamoto originally hard-coded Bitcoin to a fixed supply of 21 million. All of them will come to life at an increasingly slower rate. More precisely, the pace at which Bitcoin is created is “halved” every 210,000 blocks.
The current block reward is 6.25 Bitcoin as the last halving occurred on May 11th, 2020.
When's the Next Bitcoin Halving?
In April 2024, miners will add the next batch of 210,000 blocks. And that only means one thing - they will have their revenue immediately slashed in half to 3.125 Bitcoin.
All halvings are evenly spread out approximately every four years, consistent with Bitcoin’s hard-coded design. This way, supply will keep increasing, just at a slower clip. The reason is simple - the Bitcoin halving rewards will continue to reduce.
Deep Dive into Blockchain
In order for new Bitcoin to come into circulation, miners need to create blocks in a chain, hence the term ‘blockchain’.
Network operators—the hardworking miners—uncover blocks through computer-powered mining operations. These crypto diggers compute hashes as quickly as possible. What they do is search for the successful fixed-length output that they add to the block.
The more hashes per second (hashrate), the more chances for hacking out new blocks and adding them to the blockchain.
How Are Miners Rewarded?
Generally, miners have two ways to reward themselves for the effort. The first one is to earn revenue from transaction fees of users who send and receive Bitcoin. That’s when they act as decentralized network operators and validate transactions without a central authority.
At their height during the crypto boom in April 2021, the Bitcoin network fees reached as much as $60 per transaction and took hours to complete. After all, the network can only handle 4-7 transactions per second. To compare, payment giant Visa can validate 24,000 transactions per second.
Average transaction fee of Bitcoin, USD
Timeframe: April, 2021
Source: bitinfocharts.com
The other way to reward Bitcoin miners is to let them pocket the newly-minted Bitcoin contained in the block. Halving is basically a reward system for miners.
But more broadly, halving is part of the proof-of-work model associated with high levels of energy consumption. Millions of mining rigs soak up that energy and crank out new Bitcoin.
Why Halving Matters?
Halving the block reward for mining Bitcoin is a way to protect its integrity. This immutable feature of the OG crypto makes it stand out as a unique asset class. In this light, it is also an alternative to inflation-prone national currencies, also known as fiat money.
With that in mind, in a world that craves disruptive innovation, a technology that’s rewiring the global financial system has progressively moved into the limelight. The growing role of Bitcoin as a new investment vehicle is apparent, factoring in the elevated investor appetite .
Bitcoin transacts tens of billions of dollars of daily volumes, with a peak of more than $126 billion on May 19, 2021. The figure is sufficient to prove it has piqued the interest of enough crowds to form a market around it.
Before we revisit Bitcoin as an investable asset, let’s take a breather and trace the original crypto back to its origins where halving was introduced.
The Big Picture
Just over 15 years ago, the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto mined the initial “genesis” block . For the effort, the clandestine developer(s) earned a hefty reward of 50 Bitcoin. And also bothered to leave a message hooked to the chunk of transactions. The message read: " The Times 03/Jan/2009 Chancellor on brink of second bailout for banks. "
Since then, the Bitcoin network has witnessed three halving events:
On November 28, 2012, Bitcoin’s block reward was cut from 50 BTC to 25 BTC.
On July 9, 2016, Bitcoin’s block reward was slashed from 25 per block to 12.5 BTC.
The last one occurred on May 11, 2020, when the reward was axed to 6.25 BTC.
The next Bitcoin halving event is on deck for April 19, 2024. Rewards will fall to 3.125 BTC.
The Bitcoin halving dates may vary and we're yet to get a confirmation over the next one. Estimations indicate that every 10 minutes or so all network operators add a new block to the Bitcoin blockchain. With the current reward of 6.25 Bitcoin per block, miners dig out around 900 new Bitcoin a day.
At today’s prices , this is equal to around $50 million worth of Bitcoin extracted daily. This is where the halving becomes interesting not just to the geeks among us.
Halving events play a key part in shaping up supply and demand and weigh on the price of Bitcoin. Speaking of price movement, how does the rate at which new Bitcoin is churned out affect valuations?
What About Bitcoin's Price?
Bitcoin, as the world’s first cryptocurrency in a sea of many, is the quintessence of scarcity premium. Investment professionals are quick to say that Bitcoin carries a unique glamor as the only large tradeable asset with a predictable emission leading to a hard cap.
In that light, analysts consider Bitcoin to be the newest entrant in the store-of-value category. An investment product that holds its purchasing power over time. Ideally coming with consistent price increases.
This is possible thanks to halving - the brilliant mechanism hard-wired into the Bitcoin protocol. The minds behind the original digital currency conceived it as deflationary. A concept alien to the present financial system, flooded with central-bank cash and government stimulus.
The reason is that, contrary to fiat currencies that inflate over time, Bitcoin should not be debased by inflation. Satoshi Nakamoto explained this inflation-rate flaw in an online forum around the time of Bitcoin’s inception.
"The root problem with conventional currency is all the trust that’s required to make it work. The central bank must be trusted not to debase the currency, but the history of fiat currencies is full of breaches of that trust.”
Halving and the Way Forward
If there’s a need to draw broad conclusions, here are some of the more salient points to make a compelling argument.
Bitcoin’s purchasing power is likely to avoid debasement thanks to the halving mechanism. With less than 10% of Bitcoin still to come to the surface, it will take more than 100 years for the last unmined Bitcoin to pop out.
Once all the 21 million Bitcoin spring to life, miners will no longer stake their livelihood on uncovering new tokens. Instead, they will earn revenue from network fees for their work on validating transactions. But that’s only if the network sticks to the plan.
FAQ
❔ "What is the purpose of halving?"
► Halving maintains a decreasing pace of block rewards, which emphasizes on the idea of scarcity in Bitcoin.
❔ "When is the next Bitcoin halving?"
► The next Bitcoin halving event is scheduled to occur on April 19, 2024. This date is approximate, and the actual date may be different, depending on the time it takes to complete one full batch of 210,000 blocks.
❔ "Is halving related to price increase?"
► Technically, when the supply of new Bitcoin is cut in half, and demand remains the same, prices may go up. But the price discovery of Bitcoin does not obey archetype models of economics.
❔ "When will the last Bitcoin be mined?"
► Estimates point that the last available Bitcoin will be mined in the year 2140.
ETCUSDT.PIt appears that the price is approaching the 4-hour Point of Interest (POI), which looks promising. Additionally, I've noticed that both the 4-hour POI and the 1-hour Order Block (OB) coincide. Therefore, I anticipate a favourable reaction in this zone with a potential upward bounce.
Please write your opinion on this analysis in the comments.
If you find the analysis helpful, it would be appreciated if you share it with your friends.
FTMUSDT.PAfter Breaking POI 4H to the down side , reaching to 4H OB would make a good opportunity for long. but according to my strategy, due to weak upmovement, pending order is not recomended.
personally, I am waiting
1- to reach 4H Order block
2- check if new LLLH in 1H is establishd or not
if market creates new LLLH i will go long after breaking recent high
if market was not able to create new LLLH , getting confirmation from 15m time frame
required
i would update the chart based on all mentioned above
hearing your opinion about this analysing would be my pleasure
AVAXUSDT.PI've observed a significant upward movement in the 4-hour timeframe, indicating a potential trend reversal. However, it's crucial to acknowledge the substantial fluctuation within the 4-hour Order Block, underscoring the need for confirmation.
Despite the pronounced fluctuations, the 4-hour Order Block remains unbroken, and the overall trend is still bullish. Concurrently, the 1-hour timeframe signals a downtrend. In light of these conflicting indicators, it is not advisable to consider a long position in this zone. However, with effective risk management, one might consider entering a long position at the current price on the chart
After reaching the 1-hour Order Block, and upon receiving confirmation in the 15-minute time frame, a potential short position could present a favorable opportunity
I am trying to explore all possibilities and map the path of the market in the future. I hope my analyses help you gain profits. It would be my pleasure to hear your thoughts on the analysis.
MARINADE ( MNDE ) ON THISI was just looking at the MARINADE MDE-USD COINBASE chart and had a hard time thinking this is the top.
What does the volume tell you?
Where is support?
Where is resistance?
Does a trade make sense?
What timeframe are we basing actions on?
Just a few of the things I think about. Because the BTC ETF decision is so close, I'll be quick to cut any trade. Always use stop losses.
Not financial advice :)
Cheers!
Block (NYSE: SQ) Could Be On The Conduit Of Potential Catalysts'Square-parent Block (SQ) on Thursday reported third-quarter earnings and revenue that topped estimates. SQ stock jumped on preliminary 2024 guidance for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a key metric known as EBITDA.
Released after the market close, Square earnings for the period ended Sept. 30 were 55 cents per share on an adjusted basis, up 31% from the year-earlier period. Analysts had projected earnings of 47 cents a share.
Also, Square said net revenue rose 24% to $5.62 billion, including Cash App transactions for digital cryptocurrency Bitcoin. SQ stock analysts had predicted revenue of $5.42 billion.
On the stock market today, SQ stock surged nearly 19% to 52.29 in extended trading. In Thursday's regular session, Square stock rose 7.3%.
Square Stock: EBITDA Key Metric
Financial analysts also view gross profit as a key metric for SQ stock. Gross profit rose 21% to $1.9 billion, edging by estimates of $1.895 billion.
Cost-cutting boosted earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, a key metric known as EBITDA. It jumped 46% to $477 million, handily beating estimates of $378 million.
For fiscal 2024, Square said it expects EBITDA of $2.4 billion, up about 44% from this year's estimated $1.67 billion. Analysts had projected 2024 EBITDA of $1.94 billion.
In Q3, gross payment volume from the transactions of merchant customers rose 11% to $55.7 billion, missing estimates of $61.14 billion.
SQ stock had retreated 24% in 2023 heading into the Block earnings report. San Francisco-based Block's earnings included consumer lending firm Afterpay.
SQ-Potential Scenarios to Watch for Over The Next...Head and shoulders pattern identified on the weekly chart.
I will be watching for a break or retest of the 52 week low or a break and hold above 47.50.
A break below the 52 week low would confirm that market participants want to take the stock lower. However, a break and hold above 47.50 would confirm that participants are interested in taking the market higher.
On a lower time frame (specifically the 4H chart), data shows price broke below the .618 fibonacci retracement level and retested (see image below). The stock could potentially move lower being that it retested the .
Furthermore, price rejected the same level three times on the 1H timeframe.
Something else that should be pointed out here is the daily chart shows an increase of sellers over the last three trading sessions.
*Side note -Interestingly, SQ is in the price area it was at the beginning of COVID-19. A break below the 52 week low may cause price to retest the low from April 2020. Should price reach the low from April 2020, we should watch to see if price finds support or breaks down further.
SQ has hit a new lowSQ has hit a new low
This figure shows the weekly candle chart of Block Company's stocks in the past three years. The graph overlays the top to bottom golden section for 2021. As shown in the figure, the stock of Block Company fluctuated and organized in a rectangular range that remained relatively low from May 2022 to the previous week. This week, it has hit a new low in recent times, reaching below the top to bottom golden section of 3.618 in the figure! The stock of Block Company is about to challenge the bullish starting point at the bottom of early 2020, which is the opening price of $38.47 for the week of March 23, 2020!
2022: The year of Jack DorseyAfter leaving Twitter to solely focus on Bitcoin, I believe the re-brand of Square to Block is going to be huge in terms of direction for the company.
Bullish on Block, one of the largest Bitcoin focused companies paving the way for mass adoption.
This is the next generation of banking.
Don't underestimate the Jack.
Block (aka Square) SQ Is at the Discount Price Level!SQ - Block (also known as Square) is at the Discount Price Level. It may be tie to dollar cost average into SQ. This level has shown to be a discount level about 4 times in the past. Remember past performance does not dictate future results. Also, fundamentals trump technicals every time. Do your research and determine if this technical analysis matches up.
Portfolio Builders Club - Encouraging everyday people to start building a portfolio of growth and cashflow producing assets.
Square gearing up for $100+I am going to start doing things a bit different for my charts so please leave in the comments below if this chart or way of looking at it is better and understanding the text also.
Wave 1 Price at high $89.95 (10/14/22-2/1/23): These dates represent how long the waves lasted as we progress through them. The green wave count in the smaller text is wave count inside the bigger wave 1 and represents bullish signs.
Wave 2 Price at low $55 (2/3/23/-5/13/23): We saw a decline in Square during this time period that was pretty brutal... almost a 40% drop from the highs of wave 1. During this period, people tend to think recession and panic when they see drops like this happen so fast. Also, Wave 2's during a bull cycle of a stock tend be the worst drops when they happen compared to wave 4's.
Wave 3 Price Prediction at high $117 (Date unknown): This is the wave cycle we are at now and if that is true then we are headed much higher and we should all be buying this stock right now. Inside of wave 3's we see a lot of bullish signs in the market, news, and everything.. It is the best time to hold a stock as the most gains are made in a wave 3.
Block Inc Long IdeaNYSE:SQ followed 102 Day Bearish trend, which was reversed 35 days ago with bullish divergences and increasing bullish volume. Since then, the trend is following a parallel channel. A trendline break out of this bullish run was confirmed 19 days ago.
Trade Plan with 2 Entry Points
Risky Entry
Entry @ 66.60
TP @ 71.78
SL @ 63.27
Risk = 0.5%
RRR = 1.56
Optimal Entry
Entry @ 65.18
TP @ 71.78
SL @ 63.27
Risk = 0.5%
RRR = 3.59
Since the stock is favored fundamentally, taking partials at the TP level is advisable, and letting the trade run with training SL using ATR with the multiple of 1.5.
Time to Squre upHello everyone,
Block got left behind in the recent Fintec bull-run. In my opinion, it is hugely misspriced as it is not yet in the eyes of wallstreet, but given that it is sitting on the support levels, the company is expecting profitability by the end of the year and over-all the great health of the company, this really gives us a nice set-up.
The Stop-loss would be below $45.
Take-profit 1 would be $72 with the closure of the gap.
Take-profit 2 would be $90 at the top of the channel.
Given the bullish stance on the market on all growth companies, most of the trades are working nicely from the support set-ups.
Good luck to all!
SQ: Inverted Head and Shoulders and Bullish Bat at 0.886 RetraceSquare is currently trading at the macro 88.6% Fibonacci Retrace and has formed a Bullish Bat on the Daily all while forming an Inverted Head and Shoulders Pattern and now we are looking to see if we can break back above the 88.6% Retrace and challenge the neckline; if we do then I wouldn't be surprised to see it rally back up to where it dumped from originally.
Block: In the starting blocks… 👟Block hast just finished wave B in turquoise and is in the starting blocks to take off. Soon, the share should gain enough upwards momentum to make it above the resistance at $89.97 and even further from there. However, there is a 39% chance that Block could break away and slip below the support at $51.16. In that case, the share should develop a new low in the form of wave alt.2 in green first before heading upwards. This new low would then be located in the magenta-colored zone between $40.97 and $19.12.