Block to roll out bitcoin payments on Square

Block Inc. disclosed plans to launch bitcoin payments on Square. By leveraging the Lightning Network, the Square Point of Sale app will enable merchants to accept bitcoin payments directly through their Square hardware for near-instantaneous, low-cost transactions.

The Lightning Network is a layer-2 solution for blockchain-based cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, that is said to support cheaper, faster transactions by processing them off the main blockchain.

Square's new native Bitcoin for Businesses opens up bitcoin acceptance to the estimated 4 million merchants who currently use Square. It builds upon the Bitcoin Conversion feature launched last year, which allows qualified merchants to automatically convert a portion of their daily sales into bitcoin.

Together, these bitcoin offerings will create a seamless experience for both merchants and customers, "helping bitcoin to fulfill its original vision as a true peer-to-peer payment system," Block said in a press release.

"Block has long been a champion of bitcoin, focused on making it more accessible and usable in our everyday lives," said Miles Suter, bitcoin product lead at Block. "Rolling out a native bitcoin experience to millions of sellers brings us one step closer to that goal. When a coffee shop or retail store can accept bitcoin through Square small businesses get paid faster and get to keep more of their revenue."

This, Suter noted, is about economic empowerment for merchants who like to have options when it comes to accepting payments.

For customers, paying with bitcoin will be as easy as scanning a QR code at checkout. The Lightning Network enables near-instantaneous settlement, while Square's integration handles all the complexity behind the scenes, including real-time exchange rate calculations and confirmation notifications, Block noted.

Latest addition to string of bitcoin initiatives

"We believe in an open, decentralized, fair, fast and low-cost money system for everyone, and that's exactly what we want to bring to Square sellers," Suter said.

Bitcoin payments on Square is the latest addition to Block's growing bitcoin ecosystem, which include Cash App's bitcoin buy, sell and transfer capabilities; and Spiral, which builds and funds open-source projects that advance the use of bitcoin for economic empowerment.

Block also is advancing global access to bitcoin through Bitkey, a self-custody bitcoin wallet launched in March 2025. In May, Bitkey rolled out new privacy and security features to further strengthen user control and protection, the company said.

Designed to eliminate the complexity of traditional seed phrases, Bitkey uses a built-in, multi-signature security and recovery system that reportedly offers users full control and simple recovery options.

It's the only hardware wallet that provides inheritance as a recovery feature to all users, helping people ensure that if they are unable to move their funds their beneficiaries can initiate a recovery process. Bitkey was built to make self-custody intuitive secure and accessible for people around the world, Block said.

Block, in its press release, also said it is building out Proto, a suite of bitcoin mining products and services that aim to decentralize bitcoin mining by increasing access to tools for builders, regardless of size or location.

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