Block
Square renamed: the payments company behind Cash App and the $29B Afterpay deal, now Block, Inc. — no single headquarters, NYSE ticker XYZ.
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- Location
- Oakland, California, United States (principal-office dateline; distributed-work model, no single designated headquarters)
- Country
- United States
- Industry
- Financial services and payments
- Founded
- 2009
- Founders
- Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey
- Former name
- Square, Inc. (2009–2021)
- Renamed
- Block, Inc., legal change on or about 10 December 2021
- Ticker
- NYSE XYZ (from 21 January 2025; formerly SQ)
- Key brands
- Square, Cash App, Afterpay, TIDAL
- Afterpay acquisition
- Announced August 2021 (~$29B, all stock); implemented 1 February 2022
Overview
Block, Inc. is the American financial-services company that began life as Square, Inc. — the firm whose pocket-sized card reader let almost anyone accept a credit card — and grew into the parent of the Square seller platform, Cash App, Afterpay, and the music service TIDAL. Founded in 2009 by Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey, it renamed itself Block in December 2021 to mark how far it had grown beyond its original seller business, bought Afterpay in a deal announced at $29 billion, and now trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker XYZ (CoinDesk) (Reuters).
From a lost sale to a payments platform
Square’s origin story is a small merchant’s frustration. McKelvey, a glass artist, lost a $2,000 sale of one of his glass faucets because he had no way to accept his customer’s credit card, so he, Dorsey, and iOS engineer Tristan O’Tierney built a workaround (Inc.). In 2010 Square introduced the Card Reader, a one-inch white dongle that plugged into a phone’s headset jack and turned it into a card processor, charging merchants 2.75 percent per swipe (Inc.). The company went public in November 2015 at $9 a share — below its expected $11–$13 range — but closed its first day of trading at $13, raising $243 million (UC Berkeley Law).
The consumer side arrived in October 2013 with Square Cash, a service that let anyone send money to a contact simply by emailing them and copying cash@square.com, with no account required and no fee at launch (TechCrunch). That product, later renamed Cash App, became the company’s consumer engine: a place to send, spend, and store money, and eventually to invest in stocks and bitcoin. In March 2021 Square stretched further from payments, agreeing to pay $297 million for a majority stake in TIDAL, with Jay-Z set to join its board and TIDAL continuing to operate independently alongside the Seller and Cash App businesses (TheStreet).
The rename, and the Afterpay deal
On 1 December 2021 Square announced it was changing its corporate name to Block, with the legal change expected on or about 10 December 2021 (CoinDesk). The point was separation: the Square name had become synonymous with the Seller business, and the company wanted that business to own the brand it was built for, while the corporate entity took a name with room for everything else — building blocks, neighborhood blocks, block parties, and blockchain (CoinDesk). There were no organizational changes, and Square Crypto, its bitcoin initiative, was renamed Spiral (CoinDesk). The announcement came two days after Dorsey stepped down as CEO of Twitter, prompting speculation he would focus more of his efforts on bitcoin (CoinDesk).
Months earlier, in August 2021, Square had announced its biggest deal: buying Afterpay for $29 billion in stock, the largest ever buyout of an Australian firm, with Afterpay shareholders receiving 0.375 Square Class A shares for each share they held (Reuters). The plan was to fold Afterpay into both the Seller and Cash App ecosystems, letting even the smallest merchants offer buy-now-pay-later at checkout and letting Afterpay customers manage instalments inside Cash App. The deal became fully unconditional in January 2022, Afterpay shares were suspended from trading on 19 January 2022, and the implementation date was 1 February 2022 (The Golden Times).
What Block looks like now
Two things about the modern company routinely trip up directory listings, and both are worth stating plainly. First, Block has no single designated headquarters: it gave up its 470,000-square-foot lease at 1455 Market Street in San Francisco, which expired in September 2023, as it moved to a largely remote work model, keeping smaller San Francisco offices and its Oakland Uptown Station offices (Bisnow). Its 2025 announcements carry a “distributed-work-model/Oakland” dateline, not a San Francisco headquarters (Business Wire). Second, the old SQ ticker is gone: on 21 January 2025 the New York Stock Exchange listing moved from SQ to XYZ (the Australian listing followed on 22 January), with no change to the company’s CUSIP or ISIN (Business Wire).
The Afterpay absorption is still playing out inside Cash App. Afterpay co-founder Anthony Eisen, who ran Afterpay as co-CEO until the sale, joined Block’s board in February 2025, and Afterpay Pre-Purchase — which lets a Cash App Card user convert a debit charge into instalments at checkout — reached general availability in 2026, with Cash App commerce enablement volume growing 17% (The Motley Fool). The pressure point is credit: Block’s consumer lending originations grew 59%, and its finance chief expects that pace to normalise as borrower cohorts season (The Motley Fool).
What this profile does not claim
This profile does not claim San Francisco as Block’s headquarters — the evidence points to a distributed model with an Oakland dateline, and the San Francisco listing in many directories is stale. It does not claim a definitive final Afterpay deal value: $29 billion is the announcement-era all-stock figure, and the final value moved with Block’s share price. It does not state a final closed price for TIDAL beyond the announced $297 million, nor does it claim a current Cash App user count, which could not be confirmed in a fully-read independent source in this pass. It also does not adjudicate whether Block’s bitcoin-centred strategy — Spiral, the Bitkey wallet, and the Proto mining products named in its 2025 brand roster — will pay off; that remains an open strategic question.
Timeline
- 2009
- Jack Dorsey and Jim McKelvey found Square after McKelvey loses a $2,000 glass-faucet sale because he cannot accept a credit card.
- 2010
- Square introduces the Card Reader, a small white dongle that turns a phone or tablet into a card processor.
- 2013
- Square Cash launches, letting anyone send money to a contact via email.
- 2015
- Square lists on the New York Stock Exchange at $9 per share; shares close the first day at $13.
- 2021
- Square agrees to pay $297 million for a majority stake in TIDAL; in August it announces the $29 billion all-stock acquisition of Afterpay.
- 2021
- Square, Inc. changes its corporate name to Block, Inc.; the Square brand stays with the Seller business and Square Crypto becomes Spiral.
- 2022
- The Afterpay deal becomes fully unconditional in January and is implemented on 1 February 2022.
- 2025
- Block changes its NYSE ticker from SQ to XYZ on 21 January (ASX on 22 January).
What we could not verify
These claims came up in research and could not be confirmed. They are recorded here rather than published as fact or quietly dropped. If you hold a source that settles one, please tell us.
- Several directories still list San Francisco as Block's headquarters; Block's own 2025 announcements use a distributed-work-model/Oakland dateline and it exited its main Market Street lease in 2023. This profile follows the company's own dateline, not the stale directory listing.
- The $29 billion Afterpay figure is the announcement-era, all-stock value; the final value moved with Block's share price.
- The Afterpay completion dates rest on a tier3 source (The Golden Times) corroborated by the Motley Fool's 2022 dating; the direct Reuters completion article could not be opened in this research pass.
- Only the announced $297 million TIDAL figure is stated; no final closed price is claimed.
Sources
11 sources (1 tier 1, 7 tier 2, 1 tier 3, 2 first-party), each opened and read against the claim it supports. Statements the subject makes about itself are marked as such and are not treated as independent evidence. See the source policy.
Built from sources fetched and read in full: Reuters (tier1) for the Afterpay acquisition, Inc., TechCrunch, TheStreet, CoinDesk and Bisnow (tier2) for the founding, products, rename and office history, UC Berkeley Law (tier2) for the IPO, and first-party releases only for uncontested dates and ticker facts. Wikipedia was used only as a lead index and is not cited. No first-party source carries a load-bearing claim.
- Supports: $29B all-stock Afterpay deal, biggest buyout of an Australian firm, 0.375 Square shares per Afterpay share, ASX CDI secondary listing, Dorsey shared-purpose quote Open original source
- Supports: 2009 founding by Dorsey and McKelvey, $2,000 lost glass-faucet sale origin, 2010 Card Reader launch and 2.75% swipe pricing Open original source
- Square Cash Goes Head To Head With Venmo And Google Wallet To Allow Anyone To Send Money Via Email Tier 2Supports: Square Cash formal launch October 2013, email-based peer-to-peer mechanism, no-fee launch terms, iOS/Android apps Open original source
- Supports: $9 IPO price, 18 November debut, $11.20 open, $13 first-day close, $243 million raised, $4.2B IPO valuation Open original source
- Supports: $297M majority TIDAL stake, Jay-Z board seat on close, TIDAL operating independently, 56 countries / 70M songs / 250,000 videos, Square Financial Services launch Open original source
- Supports: Rename rationale, Square brand staying with Seller business, Square Crypto becoming Spiral, legal change expected 10 December, ticker SQ unchanged at the time, Dorsey stepping down as Twitter CEO two days earlier Open original source
- Supports: Non-renewal of 470,000 sq ft 1455 Market St. lease (expiring September 2023), move to largely remote work, retained San Francisco offices, Oakland Uptown Station presence Open original source
- Supports: Eisen joined Block's board February 2025, Block bought Afterpay in 2022, Afterpay Pre-Purchase general availability, Cash App commerce enablement volume +17%, consumer lending originations +59% Open original source
- Big news for Afterpay Tier 3Supports: Bank of Spain approval making the deal fully unconditional, ASX suspension 19 January 2022, Block CDI trading from 20 January 2022, implementation date 1 February 2022 Open original source
- Square, Inc. Changes Name to Block First-partySupports: Uncontested rename facts only — legal change on or about 10 December 2021, no organizational changes, brand roster at rename (Square, Cash App, TIDAL, TBD54566975) Open original source
- Supports: Uncontested ticker facts only — SQ/SQ2 to XYZ, NYSE 21 January 2025, ASX 22 January 2025, unchanged CUSIP/ISIN, distributed-work-model/Oakland dateline, brand roster including Bitkey and Proto Open original source
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