Block will issue $1,5 billion worth of bonds for institutional investors

What’s new? Twitter founder Jack Dorsey’s fintech company Block intends to conduct a $1,5 billion private placement of bonds to qualified institutional investors in the United States and beyond. Block intends to spend the net proceeds from the offering for general corporate purposes, which may include repayment of debt on existing bonds, potential acquisitions and strategic transactions, capital expenditures, investments, and working capital.

Press release

What else is known? The interest rate, terms and maturity date, and other aspects of the senior securities offering are not yet known and will be determined through negotiations between Block and the initial purchasers.

Block (Formerly Square) offers several products, including the e-commerce platform Square, the payments and investment app Cash App, the social platform TIDAL, and the developer platform TBD.

In late April, the company finalized the development of a mining chip. Also, it announced a full-fledged BTC mining system, which is designed to help industry participants resolve issues that have arisen after another cut in block mining rewards.

In early May, Dorsey announced to shareholders that the company would begin investing 10% of gross profits from bitcoin transactions in bitcoin every month. According to him, the development of the Bitcoin blockchain will benefit Block, allowing the company to speed up service to users around the world.

At the same time, the US Attorney’s Office began investigating the company’s activities. According to informants, including a former Block employee, Square and Cash App platforms have been violating anti-money laundering laws for years by not collecting enough information about customers, serving individuals on sanctions lists, and processing transactions related to terrorist groups.

In March, MicroStrategy twice issued $600 million and $500 million in senior convertible securities to boost its bitcoin investments. It is one of the largest holders of BTC among publicly traded companies. The value of the coins on its balance sheet exceeds $13,6 billion.

In late April, venture capital fund a16z bought $90 million worth of Optimism governance tokens. In March, the blockchain developer also sold $89 million worth of OP to six private investors.