Square’s Cash App and PayPal’s Venmo has seen a surge in usage during the pandemic as people are finding new use cases for them; people are tipping service workers, donating to causes and patronizing business that offer digital services; these services also allowed users to get the stimulus checks deposited directly into their accounts which helped some people get their money more quickly; Square disclosed in their latest earnings call that direct deposit volumes grew by three times in April as users moved more than $1.3 billion into the Cash App; both Square and PayPal said their apps are popular with unbanked and underbanked populations and the companies are looking to add even more bank-like functionality to their apps. MarketWatch
