Top stories in the Crypto Roundup today:

• Record quarterly bitcoin sales for payments technology company, Square.
• Algorand Foundation announces optional early redemption for Algo Auction participants.
• CTFC chief communications officer reveals “LedgerX has not yet been approved” to launch physically-settled bitcoin futures product.

At the time of writing, bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) are trading at $10,514.5 (+5.6%) and $220.5 (+3.3%), respectively. As for the MVIS CryptoCompare Digital Assets 10 Index, it is currently tracking at 3,725.6 (+2.1%). Earlier in the day, BTC/USD broke above the 100 EMA on the four-hour chart; an event not seen since July 21.

Square's Quarterly Bitcoin Sales Spike to Record Highs (Again)

Payments technology company Square posted a record $125.1 million in bitcoin sales for the April-through-June quarter, easily surpassing the $65.5 million recorded in the first quarter of 2019. Square facilitates the sale of bitcoin to customers through its Cash App.

“During the quarter,” page six of Square’s earnings report noted, “bitcoin revenue benefited from increased volume as a result of the increase in the price of bitcoin, and generated $2 million of gross profit.”

Speaking on an earnings call Thursday, Square chief executive Jack Dorsey—who is also the co-founder and chief executive of social media giant Twitter—remarked, “we love you, Bitcoin.”

Algorand Foundation Announces Optional Early Redemption for Algo Auction Participants

The Algorand Foundation—the entity stewarding the development of the Algorand blockchain—announced Thursday that, “in response to feedback from the market,” it is “giving auction participants an early optional opportunity to redeem the refund above the current value of the Algo.” The Algorand Foundation will be refunding eighty-five percent of the auction clearing price per Algo returned.

In June, Algorand raised over $60 million in a so-called Algo Auction. Those who were successful in acquiring Algo during the Dutch auction did so knowing they could exercise the option to return their holdings for 90 percent of the purchase price. The one-week window to do so, however, is will not be opening until June 2020.

According to  CryptoCompare price data the U.S. dollar value of one Algo token rallied 50 percent to $0.80 in the hours following the Algo Foundation’s announcement. The average cost of an Algo token purchased during the Dutch auction was $2.40—or, one-third of the spot price at the time of publication.

CTFC: LedgerX Bitcoin Futures Contracts ‘Not Yet Been Approved’

Despite the milestone announcement shared yesterday, LedgerX—a U.S.-regulated bitcoin derivatives exchange and clearinghouse—is in fact unable to offer physically-settled bitcoin futures contracts to institutional and retail investors.

That’s according to U.S. Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CTFC) chief communications officer Michael Short, who emailed CoinDesk Thursday morning stating, “LedgerX has not yet been approved by the Commission.”

On Thursday evening (UTC), CoinDesk updated its coverage of the story to read:

“LedgerX press representative Ryan Gorman told CoinDesk he will no longer be representing the company as of Thursday over ‘concerns’ about the events of the last 24 hours.”

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