Jack Dorsey’s Square announced Monday that it is starting to automatically allow bitcoin payments for millions of eligible U.S. small businesses, marking one of the most aggressive efforts ever to integrate crypto into mainstream commerce.
Subsidiary Block (XYZ) said businesses can now accept bitcoin without any additional setup and with transactions instantly converted to US dollars at checkout. The feature includes near-instant settlement and no processing fees until 2026, it added.
“Automatically enabled Bitcoin payments are rolling out to eligible sellers in US Square,” the company wrote on its X post.
“Start accepting bitcoins that instantly convert to cash at checkout, with no additional setup.” The rollout builds on Square’s broader “Square Bitcoin” initiative announced recently, but signals a significant shift as Bitcoin acceptance is now integrated directly into existing payment systems instead of requiring merchants to enable it.
Merchants who 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 custodial or accounting changes, the company said in previous statements.
Miles Suter, Head of Bitcoin Product at Block, on CEO Dorsey confirmed the rollout with a succinct “today” comment on 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 around the world, as part of its strategy to deepen digital payments, while Square’s BTC payments rollout is a major milestone for the cryptocurrency industry. Dorsey, a Bitcoin purist, has repeatedly expressed his dislike of stablecoins, although he recently said his company would support these USD-pegged tokens due to growing customer demand.
Square’s user base currently consists of 78% from the United States and 22% from international markets, according to its recent investor presentation.
Bitcoin for the general public
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Square’s Bitcoin payments approach is part of a growing trend to abstract away the complexity of crypto by handling conversions in the background, out of users’ view. By opting to default to fiat currency, Square is lowering the barrier for small businesses that have historically rejected crypto.
The announcement caught the attention of industry figures, including Lightspark CEO and former PayPal president David Marcus, who described the deployment as a potential “TCP/IP moment” for money.
Marcus compared this development to the early standardization of Internet protocols, arguing that bitcoin could become a fundamental layer for transferring value between systems.
“Enabling Bitcoin payments at scale could reflect how TCP/IP has become the foundational protocol of the Internet,” he said.
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) underpins the way data travels across the Internet, allowing disparate networks to communicate over 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.
Integrating Square could significantly expand Bitcoin’s real-world payments footprint. Rather than 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 trading surges
