Square sails past profit estimates as bitcoin volumes surge

FILE PHOTO: Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square and CEO of Twitter, speaks during an interview November 19, 2015. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson

(Reuters) -Payments firm Square Inc handily beat Wall Street expectations for quarterly profit on Thursday, as surging demand for bitcoin fueled a jump in cryptocurrency transactions on its peer-to-peer payment service Cash App.

Stripping out one-time costs, the payments firm, led by Twitter Inc top boss Jack Dorsey, earned 41 cents per share. Analysts on average had expected 16 cents per share, according to Refinitiv IBES data.