Twitter CFO Says Investing in Crypto ‘Doesn’t Make Sense Right Now’

Twitter reported $3.47 billion in cash and cash equivalents at the end of September, up from $1.99 billion during the prior-year period, alongside short-term investments of $3.94 billion.

Mr. Segal echoed a common concern among finance chiefs, many of whom cite the volatility of digital currencies and assets as one reason why they don’t use them for their corporate investments.

The lack of specific accounting rules for these assets also is complicating matters for CFOs. Large U.S. corporations in recent months have urged the Financial Accounting Standards Board to write rules on how to treat crypto assets.

There are exceptions such as

Tesla Inc.

and Square Inc., the payments company led by

Jack Dorsey,

who is also the chief executive of Twitter. Both companies have disclosed that they hold crypto assets.

“We’ve purchased bitcoin for our own balance sheet, which we believe not only shows that we have skin in the game…but also could provide attractive financial benefits over the long term,” Square CFO

Amrita Ahuja

said in an interview last month.

Twitter’s Mr. Segal, who has been leading the company’s finance function since 2017, earlier this year said the company has studied using bitcoin. “There is a different set of decisions we would have to make if we were to own cryptocurrencies on our balance sheet,” Mr. Segal said Monday.

Twitter sees growth potential for its recently launched subscription services, Mr. Segal said. Subscriptions “will be a predictable and new open space for us to generate additional revenue,” Mr. Segal said, pointing to services such as Twitter Blue, which provides users with extra features, and Super Follows, which allows users to charge followers and give access to additional content.

Twitter Blue, which currently costs $2.99 a month, is a “great starting point for us to experiment with new features,” Mr. Segal said. The company currently lists its subscription revenue as part of its data licensing and other revenue, which generated $143 million during the quarter ended Sept. 30, up 12% compared with the prior-year period.

Going forward, Twitter will offer subscriptions at different price points, Mr. Segal said. However, the majority of the company’s overall revenue—targeted at $7.5 billion in 2023—will come from advertising, Mr. Segal said.

Twitter, which last month disclosed it would sell its MoPub mobile-ad firm to

AppLovin Corp.

for $1.05 billion, will remain acquisitive and use some of the proceeds of that deal to pay down debt and repurchase shares, he said. Threader, an app that compiles and shares threads, on Monday said it has been acquired by Twitter for an undisclosed amount.

Write to Nina Trentmann at [email protected]