CEO Jack Dorsey has revealed a new feature allowing Square merchants to convert a portion of their daily sales into Bitcoin. This feature, rolled out in the U.S., allows for 1-10% of daily sales to be automatically transferred to a seller's Cash App account and converted into Bitcoin by the end of the day. Once the conversion is completed, merchants will receive a confirmation of the Bitcoin amount in their Cash App account.
The Bitcoin conversion feature, set to be accessible to all sole proprietors or single-member LLCs in the future, will include a 1% fee taken by the company from each conversion made by the seller. Merchants will have the flexibility to send Bitcoin to other wallets or sell them at any time through their Cash App account. This move by Block is seen as a part of the company's broader strategy to expand its cryptocurrency offerings, building on the launch of the Bitkey self-custody Bitcoin wallet in over 95 countries.
Despite the positive news about the Bitcoin conversion feature, Block also faced challenges recently as they had significant layoffs, reducing their workforce by 10% in January. This affected employees across various sectors of the company, including Cash App, Foundational, and Square, aiming to enhance operational efficiency and streamline the financial firm. Following these developments, Block's shares closed lower in the regular session, and Bitcoin's value was down as well at the time of writing.