Jack Dorsey's Square announced on Monday it would begin automatically enabling Bitcoin payments for millions of eligible U.S. small businesses, marking one of the most aggressive moves yet to integrate the cryptocurrency into mainstream commerce.
Businesses can now accept Bitcoin with no additional setup requirements and transactions are instantly converted to U.S. dollars at checkout, a subsidiary of The Block (XYZ) said. The feature includes near-instant settlement and zero fees by 2026, it added.
“Automatically enabled Bitcoin payments are rolling out to eligible US Square sellers,” the company wrote in its X post.
“Start accepting Bitcoin and instantly convert to cash at checkout, with no additional setup required.” The launch builds on Square’s recently announced broader “Square Bitcoin” initiative, but marks a major change as Bitcoin acceptance is now integrated directly into existing payment systems without requiring merchants to activate it.
The company said in a previous statement that merchants that accept Bitcoin for the goods and services they sell will receive U.S. dollars by default, eliminating the risk of price fluctuations and eliminating the need for escrow or accounting changes.
Miles Suter, Block's head of Bitcoin product, said on X, “We are making it easier for millions of businesses to accept Bitcoin. This is the beginning of Bitcoin as an everyday currency.” CEO Dorsey confirmed the launch in a terse “Today” comment to X.
The move comes as PayPal recently launched USD-backed stablecoin PYUSD to tens of thousands of users in 70 markets around the world as part of its deeper digital payments strategy, while Square's launch of BTC payments is a major milestone for the cryptocurrency industry. Dorsey is a Bitcoin purist who has repeatedly expressed his distaste for stablecoins, although he recently said his company would support these dollar-pegged tokens due to increased customer demand.
According to a recent investor presentation, Square's user base is currently 78% in the United States and 22% in international markets.
Bitcoin for the masses
In another X post, Suter said that “Bitcoin as an everyday currency is a long-term journey” for Block and the world, adding that “many initiatives need to be taken and many measures need to be put in place to come together in the right way and sustainably.”
Square’s Bitcoin payment method is part of a growing trend to abstract the complexity of cryptocurrencies by handling conversions in the background, invisible to users. By defaulting to settlement in fiat currency, Square lowers the bar for small businesses that have historically resisted cryptocurrencies.
The announcement caught the attention of industry players, including Lightspark CEO and former PayPal president David Marcus, who described the rollout as a potential “TCP/IP moment.”
Marcus compared the move to the early standardization of internet protocols, arguing that Bitcoin could become the base layer for transferring value across systems.
“The large-scale implementation of Bitcoin payments reflects how TCP/IP became the foundational protocol of the Internet,” he said.
Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) underpins how data moves across the Internet, allowing different networks to communicate through shared standards. Marcus suggested that Bitcoin could play a similar role in financial infrastructure by creating a common framework for transferring value between users and platforms.
Square’s integration could significantly expand Bitcoin’s real-world payments footprint. Rather than targeting cryptocurrency native users, the company integrates with a system of Bitcoin payment tools 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 surges
