Craig Wright appears to be acting as his own legal representation in a newly filed lawsuit against Bitcoin Core and Jack Dorsey’s Square.

As pointed out by Bitmex Research, a UK High Court case tracker shows that Wright filed the lawsuit on October 10 as a ‘litigant in person.’ This would indicate that he is likely filing the lawsuit himself without representation from a solicitor or barrister.

Read more: Did Craig Wright file his latest COPA appeal from China?

While the lawsuit specifically names Bitcoin Core — the software used to distribute bitcoin — and Square Up Europe Ltd. — Jack Dorsey’s payment firm best-known for its contactless card readers — the case tracker doesn’t specify the purpose of the lawsuit.

Wright posted today on X (formerly Twitter) about a lawsuit and legal threat in relation to MicroStrategy, but it’s unclear if this is related to the filing.

The Australian computer scientist is attempting to file three legal appeals in the UK. However, each of them is still waiting for approval. Two of these are directed against the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) and one is aimed at Peter McCormack.

COPA’s legal representation, Bird & Bird, previously told Protos that it is “confident that there is no proper basis for the appeal.”

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Jack Dorsey’s fintech firm Block is being probed by federal prosecutors after a former employee claimed that “everything in its compliance section was flawed” and that it’s “led by people who should not be in charge of a regulated compliance program.”

As reported by NBC, the whistleblower also claimed that Block and its business units Cash App and Square transacted crypto for terrorists, facilitated payments for sanctioned countries, and flouted compliance protocols.

The whistleblower — a former Block employee — reportedly provided 100 pages of documents to prosecutors from the Southern District of New York that show the alleged malpractice. 

The documents allegedly detail how Block processed numerous crypto transactions for terrorist-designated groups. Meanwhile, Square and Cash App allegedly failed to collect relevant information from customers that would help assess risks.

Square also reportedly facilitated thousands of transactions with countries under economic sanctions.

Read more: Blockstream and Block plan $12M off-grid solar Bitcoin mining farm in Texas

Despite being alerted to these alleged breaches, the whistleblower says the Block failed to change any company processes. They claim that a mix of the transactions discussed with prosecutors, including bitcoin, credit card, and dollar transfers, were not reported to the government under law.  

They told NBC News, “From the ground up, everything in the compliance section was flawed. It is led by people who should not be in charge of a regulated compliance program.”

These allegations of an inadequate compliance program echo claims from a research report published last year by short-sellers Hindenburg Research. This report alleged that “Cash App suppressed internal concerns and ignored user pleas for help as criminal activity and fraud ran rampant on its platform.”

Block execs allegedly knew compliance pitfalls

The former employee’s lawyer, Edward Siedle, who previously represented the Securities and Exchange Commission, said, “It’s my understanding from the documents that compliance lapses were known to Block leadership and the board in recent years.”

A Block spokesperson told NBC News it voluntarily reported ‘thousands’ of the flagged transactions to the Office of Foreign Assets Control. The former employee, however, says this isn’t true.

The spokesperson added, “Block has a responsible and extensive compliance program and we regularly adapt our practices to meet emerging threats and an evolving sanctions regulatory environment.

“Continually improving the safety and security of our ecosystem is a top priority for Block. We have been and remain committed to building upon this work, as well as continuing to invest significantly in our compliance program.”

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Elon Musk’s electric carmaker Tesla posted record earnings last quarter and unlike in Q1 made no changes to its billion-dollar Bitcoin portfolio.

Tesla’s unaudited cashflow statement shows the company generated $11.4 billion revenue last quarter, up 98% year-on-year with $1.1 billion profit.

The Palo Alto giant also stepped up production. Tesla made over 206,000 cars in Q2, doubling its output compared to last year, WSJ reported.

• Tesla’s $1.5 billion Bitcoin disclosed in February remains its only crypto stake.
• In Q1, the company trimmed its BTC stash by 10% “to prove its liquidity,” said Musk.
• Tesla held $1.311 billion worth of Bitcoin as of June 30.

Public stocks that hold Bitcoin (like Tesla) must report impairment losses when their crypto is worth less than when they bought it.

Tesla recorded $23 million in Bitcoin-related impairment losses in Q2 — meaning the company was just in the red on their investment at the end of the quarter.

Tesla is back in the green at press time, according to Bitcoin Treasuries.

For now, buying Bitcoin is only way Tesla can acquire more. The company briefly accepted BTC in March only to rescind the offer two months later citing “rapidly increasing use of fossil fuels for Bitcoin mining.”

Tesla would take Bitcoin once more when miners confirm they consume 50% clean energy to generate new cryptocurrency, Musk claimed.

As for Musk’s other ventures, the maverick billionaire recently claimed SpaceX holds Bitcoin, and that he personally owns Bitcoin, Ether, and Dogecoin.

MicroStrategy is still mostly Bitcoin

Meanwhile, Michael Saylor’s business intelligence unit MicroStrategy pledged to keep buying Bitcoin.

The Virginia-headquartered stock now holds more than 105,000 BTC ($4 billion), said Saylor during its Q2 earnings call last Thursday.

MicroStrategy boasts a market cap of around $6.2 billion, which means Bitcoin makes up nearly two-thirds of the company’s overall value.

According to its Q2 earnings, the company:

• spent $529 million on 13,759 BTC in Q2 (approx. $38,467 each),
• raised $500 million by selling secured notes to fund its Bitcoin purchases,
• recorded $425 million in impairment losses on its Bitcoin last quarter.

Bloomberg noted that if MicroStrategy sold its entire Bitcoin portfolio today, the company would generate $1.4 billion in profit — more than double its cumulative earnings over the past 25 years.

“Going forward, we intend to continue to deploy additional capital into our digital asset strategy,” confirmed Saylor (that strategy is simply: buy and hold Bitcoin).

Bitcoin aside, MicroStrategy’s actual business hit $125.4 million in revenues for Q2, up $13% year-on-year.

Earnings show Square doubled profits

Jack Dorsey’s fintech play Square revealed its peer-to-peer payments platform Cash App raked in over $2.7 million revenue from Bitcoin transactions in Q2 — triple 2020’s equivalent period.

Square posted $4.68 billion in revenue last quarter, up more than 140% year-on-year. Gross profits almost doubled to clear $1.14 billion.

“Bitcoin revenue and gross profit benefited from year-over-year increases in the price of Bitcoin, [active Bitcoin users], and growth in customer demand,” said Square in a letter to shareholders on Sunday.

San Fran-headquartered Square:

• holds 8,027 BTC ($306.7 million),
• spent $220 million on its Bitcoin in total,
• wrote down $45 million in Bitcoin impairment losses last quarter.

MarketWatch highlighted that Cash App generated about half of Square’s Q2 profits ($546 million).

Square however barely takes a cut from Bitcoin-related earnings on Cash App. The company posted $55 million in Bitcoin-related profit, which means Square banked about 2% of its Bitcoin revenue.

Separately, Square announced it agreed to buy Australian payments firm AfterPay for $29 billion, its largest ever acquisition.

[Read more: Bitcoin is still running on Moscow Time — thanks to Dorsey’s Bitcoin clock]

Square’s all-stock AfterPay deal comes amid rising adoption of “buy now, pay later” offers from payment giants PayPal and Visa.

In a press release, Square hinted the buyout would bring AfterPay users the option to spend Bitcoin with merchants.

The post How Bitcoin impacted Tesla, MicroStrategy, and Square’s Q2 earnings appeared first on Protos.