Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey-led payments company Square Inc. said on Wednesday that it is changing its name to Block Inc., as it seeks to expand beyond its payments business and into new technologies such as blockchain. The San Francisco-based company said the name “Square” has become synonymous with its vendor business. The new name will separate the corporate entity from its businesses, Square added, a strategy similar to Meta Platform Inc.’s rebrand last month.
The company said there will be no organizational changes and that its various business units — Square, peer-to-peer payment service Cash App, music streaming service Tidal and its bitcoin-focused financial services segment TBD54566975 — will continue to maintain their respective brands. Shares rose nearly 1 per cent in extended trading.
Square said in a statement, “The name has many meanings for the company – building blocks, neighborhood blocks and their local businesses, communities coming together in block parties filled with music, a blockchain, a block of code and barriers to overcome,” Square said in a statement. to do.” ,
The move comes days after Dorsey stepped down from his role as chief executive officer at Twitter. Digital payments giant Square Crypto, a team “dedicated to advancing bitcoin,” will also change its name to Spiral. Under Dorsey, who has frequently expressed his interest in the cryptocurrency, Square already bought $50 million worth of bitcoin before the institutional wave. The interest that drove the price of the digital currency to a record high this year. In February, it raised its stakes further and invested another $170 million in it.
Square is also weighing building a hardware wallet for bitcoin to make its custody more mainstream. The new name will go into effect on or around December 10, Square said, but the “SQ” ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange will not change at this time.
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