The news: Block will roll out Bitcoin payments on Square terminals during the second half of 2025, per a press release. 

All Square merchants will be able to accept Bitcoin by 2026.

The lead-up: Block has been building out an entire ecosystem of Bitcoin products. 

Most recently, Block launched a feature that lets Square merchants transfer 1%-10% of their daily sales to their Cash App account for conversion into Bitcoin.

Block also owns Bitkey, a Bitcoin wallet; Proto, a collection of Bitcoin mining products and services; and Spiral, a funding engine for open-source projects that utilize Bitcoin for “economic empowerment.”

The company plans to develop a proprietary Bitcoin mining system this year.

Cryptic value add: While Block’s Bitcoin Product Lead Miles Suter has described the company’s cryptocurrency initiatives as “economic empowerment” for merchants, the actual value remains dubious. Bitcoin’s valuation rapidly fluctuates, making the decision to accept a currency that could fall as much as 53% overnight too large of a risk for most Square merchants. 

At the same time, the incentive to abandon fiat currency for crypto is zero to none. Initiatives like Square’s can help expand acceptance, but the company still can’t thwart the capital gains taxes on Bitcoin transactions, which can be as high as 37%—almost surely eliminating any competitive advantage a merchant might have to operate with crypto. 

Our take: Block’s continuous crypto rollouts may reflect an earnest desire to be viewed as a payments innovator—plus CEO Jack Dorsey’s deeply held beliefs in the currency.