In the three years that Square has existed, the company and its hugely popular line of smartphone and tablet-compatible credit card readers have grown consistently in terms of both merchant usage and consumer popularity.

Regardless of the tangible success at Square, no one was prepared for the announcement that came this week from the company – perhaps not even some employees at Square. As it turns out, the Jack Dorsey-founded firm has experienced a payment volume increase of 25 percent since last month alone.

Just as others in the mobile payments space were temporarily distracted in March by new offerings from the likes of PayPal, which unveiled a new mobile scanner, Square was growing at a record pace inside of an industry that is more competitive now than ever.