Bitcoin payments are set to be introduced by Jack Dorsey’s financial services company, Block, Inc., on its payment processing platform, Square, with an initial rollout planned for later this year and a complete launch expected by 2026.
The plan was announced by the company on May 27 during the Bitcoin 2025 conference held in Las Vegas, where the feature was demonstrated at the BTC Inc. merchandise store by Block.
Bitcoin payments will be accepted by merchants through existing Square hardware, utilizing the Lightning Network—Bitcoin’s layer-2 scaling solution designed to enable faster transactions at lower costs.
It was stated by Dorsey on X that merchants would be given the option to either retain the Bitcoin or have it automatically converted to fiat currency in real time.
It was announced by the company that the rollout is expected to commence in the second half of 2025, with the goal of making the service available to all eligible Square sellers by 2026, pending necessary regulatory approvals.
This initiative expands upon Square’s current Bitcoin Conversions feature, which permits merchants to automatically convert their sales into BTC. On the consumer side, payments can be made by simply scanning a QR code, while the underlying technical processes are managed by Square, with the Lightning Network facilitating nearly instant settlement.
According to Miles Suter, Block’s Bitcoin Product Lead, the initiative is intended to promote economic empowerment for merchants by providing them with greater flexibility in how they accept payments.
It was announced by the company that beginning in May, additional privacy and security enhancements would be introduced to its self-custody BTC wallet, Bitkey, which was launched in late 2023. These new features are intended to improve accessibility to self-custody without relying on traditional seed phrases.
Stake n’ Shake Cuts Payment Fees with Bitcoin Adoption
Meanwhile, it was stated by Dan Edwards, the chief operating officer of the American fast-food chain Stake n’ Shake, during a presentation at Bitcoin 2025, that the company’s payment processing fees had been reduced by half through the adoption of Bitcoin as a payment method.
Edwards noted that their experience with Bitcoin to date has shown it to be faster than credit card transactions, and that when customers opt to pay using Bitcoin instead of credit cards, approximately 50% is saved in processing fees by the company.
It was announced by Stake n’ Shake on May 9 that Bitcoin would be accepted as a form of payment at all of its restaurant locations worldwide, with the rollout scheduled to begin on May 16.
