Block, Inc.


Block, Inc. is an American technology company and a financial services provider for consumers and merchants. Founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey, it is the U.S. market leader in point-of-sale systems. As of 2024, Block serves 57 million users and 4 million sellers, processing $241 billion in payments annually.
Block's inaugural product Square, launched in 2009, is a point-of-sale system. It allows sellers to accept card payments and manage operations, including bookings, e-commerce, inventory, payroll, banking, and obtaining business loans. Additionally, Block's portfolio includes Cash App, a consumer-focused digital wallet introduced in 2013. This app allows users to send, receive, save or borrow money, access a debit card, invest in stocks and bitcoin, and file taxes. Block also owns Afterpay, a buy now, pay later business; Bitkey, a self-custody bitcoin wallet; Proto, a bitcoin mining system; and Tidal, a music streaming business.

History

2009: Conception

The original inspiration for Block's first product "Square" occurred to Jack Dorsey in 2009 when his friend Jim McKelvey was unable to complete a $2,000 sale of his glass faucets and fittings because he could not accept credit cards. Co-founders Dorsey—who also co-founded Twitter—and McKelvey began developing the company out of a small office in St. Louis. The name "Square" derives from the company's square-shaped card reader product.

2010–2014: Early years

According to Forbes, Block, named Square, Inc. then, tested its payment method on 50,000 merchants in the summer of 2010, and was reporting a chargeback rate of less than 0.05 percent. In February 2011, Square was reportedly valued at approximately US$240 million, signing up 100,000 new merchants every month. In April 2011, Square announced that it has secured an investment from Visa. In October 2011, the company stated that it was processing about US$2 billion per year in payments through its "Square" card readers, charging 2.75 percent per swipe.
In 2012, Starbucks and Square announced a partnership that would allow Starbucks to use the Square payment technology to accept payments for coffee. In the same year, Starbucks also reportedly invested US$25 million in Square. Square was handling an annual payment volume of around US$6 billion around that time.
In 2013, Square launched Cash App, a peer to peer payment service. In October 2014, the company launched the integration of a payroll feature into its Square payment processing system, following the integrations of a merchant cash advance offering, a customer feedback product and an invoicing service into the system.

2015–2020: Initial public offering, growth

In 2015, Square stated that it processed about US$23.8 billion worth of payment volume in 2014. In the same year, the company sold shares in its initial public offering for US$9 per share, giving itself a market capitalization of $2.9 billion.
In 2018, Vox reported Square as stating that over 7 million people used the Cash App in December 2017. Vox also stated that Cash App was the "No. 1 free finance app" in Apple's U.S. iPhone App Store and was "ahead" of PayPal and Venmo.
In October 2020, Square put approximately 1% of their total assets in Bitcoin, citing Bitcoin's "potential to be a more ubiquitous currency in the future" as their main reasoning. The company purchased approximately 3,318 bitcoins in February 2021 for a cost of around $170 million, bringing Square's total holdings to around 8,027 bitcoins.

2021–2022: Name change, acquisitions

On March 2, 2021, Square reached an agreement to acquire majority ownership in Tidal. Square paid $297 million in cash and stock for Tidal, with Jay-Z joining the company's board of directors. Jay-Z, as well as other artists who currently own stock in Tidal, will remain stakeholders.
On December 1, 2021, Square announced that it would change its company name to Block, Inc. on December 10. The change was announced shortly after Dorsey resigned as CEO of Twitter. On December 10, 2021, the name change took effect, and Square, Inc. became Block, Inc. On December 16, less than a week into the rebrand, H&R Block, sued the company for trademark infringement, claiming that the name seeks to confuse customers by misappropriating the Block brand name, which H&R owns. The lawsuit was resolved in April 2023 when the two companies jointly agreed to dismiss the suit.
On January 31, 2022, Block completed its acquisition of Afterpay, an Australian buy now, pay later lender.

2023–present: Business realignment, S&P 500 addition

In February 2023, Afterpay suffered a service issue which led to a sudden reduction in the spending limits for many users. At least 2000 users reported experiencing a difficulty with the service. Afterpay acknowledged the problem and said it was working on a fix. On September 7 and 8, 2023, Square and Cash App experienced outages, affecting thousands of users. Card payment processing, peer-to-peer payments and other transactions were among the impacted operations. On September 8, 2023, Block informed that the service disruptions had been resolved and all systems were operational by the afternoon of that day. It also said the outage was caused by an issue with the company's Domain Name System, and did not stem from a cyberattack. In the following week, Block apologized to its customers and acknowledged “this situation was made more difficult by our communication”. To reduce the risk of a similar outage in future, the company said it had deployed a new set of firewall and DNS server changes, expanded offline payment capabilities so merchants can still accept payments in offline mode, and put in place additional measures. Later in the month, Block said in a regulatory filing that the CEO of its Square business, Alyssa Henry, was set to leave the company in October 2023, and that Jack Dorsey, serving then as the "Block Head" and Chairperson, would take on an additional role of "Square Head".
In February 2024, Block reported an annual "Gross Payment Volume" of US$228 billion and an annual income of $9.8 million for the year 2023. In April 2024, CNBC reported that Block announced it had finished the development of its own standalone three-nanometer bitcoin mining chip and was in the process of working through the design with a semiconductor foundry. The company was also reported to be developing a "full bitcoin mining system", stating that its goal was to both decentralize the supply of bitcoin mining hardware and the distribution of hashrate — a proxy for industry competition and mining difficulty. In this regard, according to CNBC, Block was solving a "major barrier to entry" posed by the relative difficulty in sourcing mining rigs, their high prices and unpredictable delivery. In May 2024, the company's Square platform was found to be the market leader in point-of-sale systems in the U.S. In July 2024, Block signed a "large-scale crypto mining hardware pact", agreeing to supply its chips to bitcoin miner "Core Scientific". The company did not disclose financial details of the pact. In September 2024, Block announced a leadership reshuffle, moving many longtime executives into more senior roles and creating a new position focused on customer safety. As part of these changes, Brian Grassadonia, formerly the CEO of Cash App, was appointed as the company's new "ecosystem lead" to enhance coordination across Block's business sectors.
In October 2024, Bitkey appeared in TIME's list of the "best inventions of 2024". In November 2024, Fortune reported that Block was laying off many employees from its Tidal, TBD and Square services. That same month, Block announced it was "winding down" TBD, "scaling back" investments in Tidal and focussing its resources on its bitcoin mining initiative as well as Bitkey, while adding that it was "refining" its investments based on progress. The firm changed its stock ticker from SQ to XYZ in January 2025.
In March 2025, Block announced to staff that they had plans to cut almost 1000 employees.
On July 23, 2025, Block was added to the S&P 500, replacing Hess Corporation.

Subsidiaries, products, services

Square

Square is a payments platform that allows businesses to accept card payments and use smartphones or tablets or computers as payment registers for a point-of-sale system. The platform was founded in 2009 by Dorsey and McKelvey. Square also offers additional features to manage various operations including staff payroll and shift schedules, customer bookings, inventory, e-Commerce, banking and business loans.
In 2022, a Protocol survey showed that 35% of U.S. small business owners used Square, a higher percentage than its competitors, while also highlighting the POS market's continued fragmentation. In April 2023, Square was reported to have 4 million merchants as its customers. Its client base includes small and medium-sized businesses as well as larger ones. As of 2024, the platform is available in the U.S., Australia, Canada, France, Japan, Republic of Ireland, Spain and the U.K., and is the U.S. market leader in point-of-sale systems.

Cash App

Launched in October 2013, Cash App is a digital wallet which allows sending and receiving money, investing in stocks or bitcoin, and filing taxes. In March 2015, the firm introduced Square Cash for businesses, which includes the ability for individuals, organizations, and business owners to use a unique username, known as a $cashtag, to send and receive money. As of 2023, Cash App also offers a savings account and a debit card, and services such as direct deposit and investing in stocks and Bitcoin. In March 2023, USA Today reported that Cash App offered a free tax-filing service while cautioning that it didn't accommodate "every tax situation" and didn't offer "live tax support". In October 2023, it was reported that Cash App also allowed users to borrow up to $200 from the app, and that "not everyone is an eligible user for this feature".
Cash App has been found to be the preferred payment app among lower-income adults in the U.S., reporting 57 million "monthly active users" as of 2024.