Block, Inc. announced it will launch bitcoin payments on Square, marking a significant milestone in making bitcoin more “accessible and usable.”
Bitcoin payments on Square will be showcased at Bitcoin 2025 in Las Vegas from May 27-29, where attendees can “experience this new feature firsthand at the BTC Inc. merchandise store.”
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.”
The roll out is anticipated to begin in the second half of 2025 and is expected to reach “all eligible Square sellers in 2026, subject to applicable regulatory approvals.”
Square’s new, native Bitcoin For Businesses offering will build upon its Bitcoin Conversions feature launched in 2024, 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 fulfil its original vision as a true peer-to-peer payment system, as outlined in the bitcoin whitepaper.”
Miles Suter, Bitcoin Product Lead at Block said:
“Block has long been a champion of bitcoin, focused on making it more accessible and usable in our everyday lives. 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 is about economic empowerment for merchants who like to have options when it comes to accepting payments.”
For customers, paying with bitcoin is as simple “as scanning a QR code at checkout.”
The Lightning Network enables near-instant settlement, while Square’s integration “handles all the complexity behind the scenes, including real-time exchange rate calculations and confirmation notifications.”
Suter added:
“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.”
Bitcoin payments on Square will be the latest “addition to Block’s growing bitcoin ecosystem, which includes Cash App’s bitcoin buy, sell, and transfer capabilities; Bitkey, a self-custody bitcoin wallet; Proto, a suite of bitcoin mining products and services; and Spiral, which builds and funds open-source projects that advance the use of bitcoin as a tool for economic empowerment.”
Block is also advancing global access “to bitcoin through Bitkey, a self-custody bitcoin wallet launched in March 2024.”
Starting in May, Bitkey will “roll out new privacy and security features to further strengthen user control and protection.”
Designed to eliminate the complexity of traditional seed phrases, Bitkey uses a built-in, “multi-signature security and recovery system that 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 are able to initiate a recovery process.”
Bitkey was built to make self-custody “intuitive, secure, and accessible for people around the world.”
In addition, Block is building Proto, bitcoin mining products and services that aim to decentralize mining by “increasing access to tools for builders, regardless of size or location.”
