Square Changing Name to Block to ‘Acknowledge Company’s Growth’

Move comes days after CEO Jack Dorsey stepped down from Twitter

Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter and co-founder and CEO of Square, attends the crypto-currency conference Bitcoin 2021 Convention at the Mana Convention Center in Miami, Fla., on June 4, 2021. (Marco Bello/AFP via Getty Images)

Square Inc., the financial services and digital payments company co-founded and led by former Twitter chief Jack Dorsey, is changing its corporate name to Block Inc., it announced in a statement late Wednesday.

The name change comes just days after Dorsey stepped down as CEO Twitter, which he helped found in 2006. Twitter named its chief technology officer, Parag Agrawal, as CEO.

In Wednesday’s statement, Square said the change will go into effect on or around Dec. 10 and “differentiates the Square brand, which was built for the Seller business, from the corporate entity.”

The name change also “acknowledges the company’s growth,” the company wrote, noting that since its founding in 2009 the firm has added mobile payment service Cash App, streaming music service TIDAL, and a bitcoin-focused, open developer platform to create a decentralized exchange, TBD54566975.

There will be no organizational changes, and Square, Cash App, TIDAL, and TBD54566975 will continue to maintain their respective brands. Its New York Stock Exchange ticker symbol will remain SQ for now.

“Block will be the name for the company as a corporate entity. The Square name has become synonymous with the company’s Seller business, which provides an integrated ecosystem of commerce solutions, business software, and banking services for sellers, and this move allows the Seller business to own the Square brand it was built for,” the company wrote.

Dorsey has openly endorsed bitcoin in the past and the new name aligns with the digital currency and the technology behind it, known as the blockchain.

At a cryptocurrency conference in Miami in June, the American technological entrepreneur said, “If I were not at Square or Twitter I'd be working on bitcoin,” adding that he believes “both companies have a role to play.”

Square announced in February this year that it had purchased approximately 3,318 bitcoins at an aggregate purchase price of $170 million. Prior to that, the company purchased $50 million in bitcoin, amounting to roughly $220 million of bitcoin in its corporate treasury.

In June, the company also announced that it was developing its own hardware crypto wallet, a portable device that allows users to access their crypto assets securely from anywhere, in an effort “to make bitcoin custody more mainstream.”

“Bitcoin is for everyone,” Dorsey wrote on Twitter at the time. “It’s important to us to build an inclusive product.”

The name change comes after Dorsey announced in a statement on Nov. 29 that he would be stepping down as Twitter’s chief executive, effective immediately.

“I’ve decided to leave Twitter because I believe the company is ready to move on from its founders,” Dorsey said. “My trust in Parag as Twitter’s CEO is deep. His work over the past 10 years has been transformational. I’m deeply grateful for his skill, heart, and soul. It’s his time to lead.”

Agrawal, who has been with Twitter for more than a decade, has been chief technology officer since 2017.

Dorsey will remain a member of Twitter’s board of directors until next year when his term expires, the company stated.