Square Begins Bitcoin Payments for Sellers as Block Stock Hits S&P 500

Jack Dorsey’s Block (XYZ) has started adding the first customers for its Bitcoin payments service, just as the firm joins the S&P 500.

Shares of the NYSE-listed company, which owns Square, Cash App, and TIDAL, closed up 0.5% but have risen more than 14% over the past week.

Dorsey stepped down as CEO Twitter, the company he founded, in 2021 to focus on making Bitcoin the world’s dominant currency. 

Block’s executive officer and head of business, Owen Jennings, said on X Tuesday that Block’s point of sale payment company, Square, was now onboarding customers for “the new native Bitcoin acceptance experience.”

Block did not immediately respond to Decrypt‘s questions. 

First announced in May, Square will use Bitcoin’s layer 2 network, Lightning, so merchants can accept BTC from those who want to pay with it. Lightning enables cheaper and faster transactions so the cryptocurrency can be used to make smaller purchases.

“By leveraging the Lightning Network, the Square point of sale app enables merchants to accept Bitcoin payments directly through their Square hardware for near-instantaneous, low-cost transactions,” an announcement in May said, adding that the cryptocurrency gives “economic empowerment” to merchants. 

Block, which rebranded from Square Inc. in 2021, has been focusing on Bitcoin-related products as Dorsey preaches the benefits of using the cryptocurrency. 

The Bitcoin maximalist and founder of Twitter (now X) has long spoken about how the leading cryptocurrency should be used for what it was designed to do: Payments. 

Block’s payments app, Cash App, has long allowed users to send, receive, and buy Bitcoin. 

Bitcoin was recently trading at about $118,000, down 1.4% over the past 24 hours, although the largest cryptocurrency by market value has risen more than 26% year-to-date. Block’s share price has fallen more than 8% since January 1, despite an upturn in BTC and wider cryptocurrency markets. 

A rising number of companies are looking to provide Bitcoin payment services.