Block CEO Jack Dorsey has confirmed the payments company will add stablecoin support, marking a pragmatic retreat from his long-held position that Bitcoin alone should serve as the internet's money protocol.
"I don't like that we're going to support stablecoins but our customers want to use them," Dorsey said in an interview with WIRED . "I don't think it's wise to go from one gatekeeper to another."
The comment came during a wide-ranging conversation about Block's recent decision to cut roughly 40% of its workforce, which Dorsey attributed to advances in AI tools rather than overhiring.
Reluctant Pivot
Dorsey has been one of Silicon Valley's most vocal Bitcoin maximalists. Block — formerly Square — has built its crypto strategy almost exclusively around Bitcoin since introducing buying and selling on Cash App in 2017 . The company received a BitLicense in 2018, launched a Bitcoin development arm funding Lightning Network developers in 2019, and began accumulating BTC for its corporate treasury in 2020.
Block currently holds 8,888.3 BTC — worth over $600 million at current prices.
In the WIRED interview, Dorsey reiterated his philosophical stance even while acknowledging market reality: "We didn't make a push into crypto. We made a push into Bitcoin because I believe the internet needs an open protocol for money transmission, and Bitcoin represents that protocol the best to me. It's not controlled by any one company."
Competitive Pressure
The shift comes as stablecoins have grown into a $318 billion market, according to CoinMarketCap data. Payment rivals including Stripe and PayPal have already integrated stablecoin infrastructure, increasing pressure on Block to match their offerings.
Cash App announced stablecoin support in November 2025, with deposits automatically converting to U.S. dollars in users' balances — a design that maintains fiat as the core unit of account while accommodating stablecoin rails.
Dorsey's comments echo his 2019 response when asked whether Twitter would join Facebook's Libra stablecoin project: "Hell no." At the time, he said the project "was born out of a company's intention, and it's not consistent with what I personally believe and what I want our company to stand for."
AI Restructuring
The stablecoin remarks were a footnote in a broader conversation about Block's workforce reduction. Dorsey said advances in AI tools — specifically citing Anthropic's Opus 4.6 and OpenAI's Codex 5.3 — triggered the decision to restructure the company around what he called "an intelligence layer."
"Every company that's not building itself as intelligence is going to face something existential, and it's going to happen over the next year or two," Dorsey said. "That's what weighs on me every single day — this thing could just go away completely."
Block reported nearly $3 billion in profit last quarter and holds a $39 billion market cap.
