Jack Dorsey’s Square announced Monday that it began automatically enabling bitcoin payments for millions of eligible U.S. small businesses, marking one of the most aggressive pushes yet to integrate crypto into mainstream commerce.
The Block (XYZ) subsidiary said businesses can now accept bitcoin with no additional setup requirements and with transactions instantly converted to U.S. dollars at checkout. The feature includes near-instant settlement and zero processing fees until 2026, it added.
“Automatically enabled bitcoin payments are rolling out to eligible US Square merchants,” the company wrote in its X post.
“Start accepting bitcoin instantly converted to cash at checkout, with no additional setup.” The rollout builds on Square’s broader “Square Bitcoin” initiative announced recently, but signals a significant change as bitcoin acceptance is now integrated directly into existing payment systems rather than requiring merchants to enable it.
Retailers that accept bitcoin for the goods and services they sell will receive US dollars by default, removing exposure to price volatility and eliminating the need for custody or accounting changes, the company has said in previous statements.
Miles Suter, Block’s head of bitcoin product, said at X: “we’re making it easier for millions of businesses to accept bitcoin. This is how bitcoin begins as everyday money.” CEO Dorsey confirmed the rollout with a terse “today” comment to X.
The move comes as PayPal recently rolled out its US dollar-backed stablecoin, PYUSD, to tens of thousands of its users in 70 markets worldwide as part of its strategy to push deeper into digital payments, while Square’s BTC payment rollout is a major milestone for the cryptocurrency industry. Dorsey, a bitcoin purist, has repeatedly expressed his distaste for stablecoins, though he recently said his company would support these USD-pegged tokens due to growing customer demand.
Square’s user base is currently 78% from the US and 22% from international markets, according to the latest investor presentation.
Bitcoin for the masses
In a separate X post, Suter said “bitcoin as everyday money is a long-term journey” for Block and the world, adding that “a lot of moves to make and a lot of pieces to fall into place for all of this to come together in the right way and sustainably.”
Square’s bitcoin payment approach is part of a growing trend to abstract from crypto complexity by handling conversions in the background, out of users’ visibility. By setting settlement to fiat, Square lowers the barrier for small businesses that have historically rejected crypto.
The announcement drew attention from industry insiders, including Lightspark CEO and former PayPal president David Marcus, who described the rollout as a potential “TCP/IP moment” for money.
Marcus compared the move to the early standardization of internet protocols and argued that bitcoin could become a foundational layer for transferring value across systems.
“Enabling Bitcoin payments at scale could mirror how TCP/IP became the foundational protocol of the Internet,” he said.
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) supports how data moves over the Internet, allowing different networks to communicate through a shared standard. Marcus suggested that bitcoin could play a similar role in financial infrastructure by creating a common framework for moving value between users and platforms.
Square’s integration could significantly expand Bitcoin’s real-world payment footprint. Instead of targeting crypto-native users, the company integrates bitcoin payment tool systems already used by millions of small businesses for payments, inventory and payroll.
Read more: Stablecoin payments become ‘invisible’ in Southeast Asia as crypto card business takes off
