Jack Dorsey, the technology entrepreneur who co-founded Twitter and built Square into a global payments network, has unveiled his boldest challenge yet to the dominance of the credit-card system.

Block Inc, the parent of Square, this week launched Square Bitcoin, a fully integrated wallet and payments platform allowing small businesses to accept, store and convert Bitcoin as easily as card payments. The system will let retailers automatically divert up to 50 per cent of their daily sales into Bitcoin, held securely within the same Square dashboard that manages their cashflow.

Cutting out card fees

Dorsey said the idea was to give merchants a digital alternative to traditional card networks, whose processing fees have long been a point of tension for small firms. “More and more sellers are getting frustrated with credit-card fees for the value they get back from it,” he told investors at a launch event in New York. “Bitcoin is a good alternative because it offers the convenience of digital payments without the significant fee on top.”

Square merchants in the US can begin accepting Bitcoin payments from November 10, with no processing charges until 2027. Thereafter, a 1 per cent fee will apply, still far below the average 2.5 to 3 per cent charged on many card transactions.

The service excludes New York for now because of local licensing rules, but Block expects broader coverage as state regulators adapt.

Seamless integration

Under the new arrangement, merchants can:

Accept Bitcoin payments at the till or online using existing Square terminals.
Convert a chosen proportion of daily receipts into Bitcoin automatically.
Hold or sell their Bitcoin through an integrated wallet, eliminating the need for separate crypto exchanges.

Miles Suter, Block’s head of Bitcoin products, said the goal was to make digital-currency payments “as seamless as card payments” while giving smaller firms access to financial management tools that were previously the preserve of large corporations.

Early pilot users have already converted around 142 bitcoins through the system, evidence, Dorsey said, that appetite among small merchants is real.

A long-term believer

Dorsey, 48, has been one of Bitcoin’s most visible advocates. He argues that the cryptocurrency’s fixed supply, capped at 21 million coins, makes it “inherently deflationary” and therefore a credible store of value. “If it’s proven anything, it’s proven that it’s a pretty safe store of value,” he said. “Over sixteen years the pattern repeats almost every four.”

His company’s own balance sheet reflects that conviction. Block holds part of its corporate treasury in Bitcoin and has invested heavily in Bitkey, a hardware wallet aimed at consumers who want to hold digital assets independently of banks.

Competing on trust and reach

The latest initiative places Block at the centre of a race to merge crypto with mainstream payments. Rival fintechs and exchanges, including Coinbase and PayPal, are developing similar services, but Square’s advantage lies in its scale. More than four million merchants already use its point-of-sale technology, giving it a ready-made distribution network for the new wallet.

Analysts say that embedding Bitcoin directly into the Square ecosystem could accelerate everyday use by removing the need for external wallets or conversion apps. “It’s the first credible bridge between traditional payment rails and blockchain,” said one fintech analyst in San Francisco. “If anyone can normalise crypto payments for small business, it’s Square.”

The company’s stock rose more than 5 per cent on the announcement, building on a strong year that saw Block join the S&P 500 in July — a symbolic milestone confirming its status as one of America’s leading financial-technology groups.

Opportunity and risk

Supporters view the initiative as a practical step towards financial independence for small merchants. By allowing businesses to store a portion of their income in Bitcoin, Dorsey argues, they can hedge against inflation and currency volatility.

Critics point to the opposite risk: Bitcoin’s own price swings could make daily cash-management harder. Block’s system allows instant conversion back into dollars to limit exposure, but adoption will depend on whether merchants are comfortable holding even a small share of earnings in crypto.

There are regulatory uncertainties too. While most US states treat merchant Bitcoin payments as lawful, rules vary over taxation and reporting. New York’s absence from the rollout underlines the patchwork still confronting the industry.

A bet on financial freedom

For Dorsey, however, the long-term vision remains clear. “You can say that you want one per cent of your incoming revenue to be auto-converted to Bitcoin and just let it sit there,” he said. “It’s a hedge against everything we’re seeing in the economy.”

By linking that philosophy to the Square brand, known for simplicity, reliability and compliance, Block hopes to make Bitcoin feel less like a speculative asset and more like part of everyday commerce.

The group’s executives describe the launch as an inflection point: a way to give merchants control over their digital future without leaving the regulatory shelter of the established payments system.

What comes next

If the service gains traction, Block plans to expand to Europe and Asia, where demand for cheaper cross-border payment tools is growing rapidly. Analysts believe the model could also underpin future peer-to-peer transfers within the Cash App ecosystem, creating a closed-loop network for consumers and merchants alike.

Still, success is not guaranteed. Consumer demand for paying in Bitcoin remains limited, and the industry must overcome lingering scepticism about volatility and energy use.

Yet the significance of Dorsey’s move lies less in immediate adoption and more in signalling. It shows that one of fintech’s most established players is betting that Bitcoin’s future lies not in trading but in utility, as a working part of the global payments infrastructure.

For small businesses squeezed by fees and inflation, the attraction of a low-cost digital option may prove compelling. And for Dorsey, who has spent two decades building platforms that bypass traditional intermediaries, bringing Bitcoin to the till may be his most ambitious attempt yet to redefine how money moves.