Block Inc, the FinTech led by Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, has reported $1.29 billion in gross profit in the first quarter of 2022, up 34 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

The California-based firm, which formerly operated as Square, saw its share price jump 10 per cent after it confirmed a strong set of results.

Its Cash App division, which allows users to make payments in fiat and cryptocurrency, reported gross profit of $624 million, up 26 per cent compared to the first quarter of 2021.

Square, the merchant payments services division, generated gross profit of $661 million, up 41 per cent on a year-on-year basis.

The results come after the company acquired Australian Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) platform Afterpay for $29 billion in January, in a deal that enables Block to compete with the likes of Affirm,Sezzle, PayPal and Klarna in the rapidly expanding US market.

The acquired company contributed $92 million to Block’s first quarter gross profit.

The company said it had allocated 50 per cent of Afterpay revenue and gross profit to each of Square and Cash App, which boosted results for both business units.

However, the company reported lower than expected figures for adjusted profit as demand for bitcoin slumped in the first quarter.

The company said that at the end of the first quarter, more than 10 million Cash App accounts had bought bitcoin since the product was first introduced.

In its quarterly report, Block said: “We are focused on expanding our customers’ awareness and access to bitcoin, which has allowed us to drive meaningful adoption.”

In the three months to March 31, revenue fell 22 per cent to $3.96 billion.

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