Block announced that its Square platform will begin supporting bitcoin payments, with a pilot demonstration currently underway at the Bitcoin 2025 conference in Las Vegas.
The rollout, announced on May 27, is planned to begin in late 2025 and is expected to reach eligible sellers in 2026, subject to regulatory approval.
Square will integrate the Lightning Network, a secondary layer on the bitcoin blockchain designed to enable faster and lower-cost transactions. According to Block, this update will allow merchants to accept bitcoin directly through Square’s existing point-of-sale hardware.
The company said this builds on its 2024 feature that allowed eligible sellers to convert a portion of their daily sales into bitcoin.
“Rolling out a native bitcoin experience to millions of sellers brings us one step closer to that goal,” said Miles Suter, Bitcoin Product Lead at Block.
“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.”
Block says that customers will be able to pay using bitcoin by scanning a QR code. Square will handle exchange rate conversion and confirmation automatically within the app.
According to the company, the goal is to make bitcoin more usable in everyday business.
Market context
The announcement was made at the start of Bitcoin 2025, one of the largest industry events for digital currencies.
Despite the product reveal, bitcoin’s price declined by 0.9% over the past 24 hours to approximately $USD 108,934. This may reflect investor caution despite broader interest in cryptocurrency infrastructure.
Block’s bitcoin ecosystem includes Cash App, Bitkey (a self-custody bitcoin wallet), and Proto, a bitcoin mining hardware and software division. The company also funds open-source development through its Spiral initiative.
Other payment providers have also taken steps to incorporate cryptocurrency. Visa and Mastercard have developed systems to support stablecoin payments. PayPal recently introduced its own stablecoin to support digital transactions.
