Stacked Insights Newsletter, 12.08.21 Why Square's rebrand | Stacked

Stacked Insights Newsletter, 12.08.21

Why Square's rebrand is a huge W for crypto

After resigning his role as Twitter CEO, Jack Dorsey wasted no time going all-in on a new vision for his payments company Square. Dorsey approved an unanticipated rebrand to Block — signaling his intention to move decisively toward crypto.

Block will oversee an ecosystem of products including Cash App, Tidal, and a platform for Bitcoin developers called TBD54566975. And yes, Square will live on too, but only as a payment processing service.

If the move sounds familiar, that’s because Facebook just finished a similar pivot with its Meta rebrand. However, whereas Mark Zuckerberg is trying to further centralize the web, Dorsey seems intent on decentralizing it.

Payments are a powerful thing. After all, we’re talking about the movement of value which is the essential ingredient keeping the global economy spinning. In the film Dune, he who controls the spice controls the universe. But in our world, the same is true for whoever controls the flow of money.

What if no one and everyone controlled the flow of money? That’s the prospect enabled by cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, but getting the mainstream behind such a network requires friends in high places.

Friends in high places

Dorsey appears to be just such a friend. In a press release, he said Block’s purpose is economic empowerment. Considering his Twitter bio reads #bitcoin, it’s fair to assume the empowerment he’s envisioning comes in the form of global BTC access for all.

But what would that look like? Spread between Block’s holdings is the making of an interconnected empire running on crypto. Tidal, for example, is already considering adding NFT support allowing artists to receive permanent royalties on resales. Square itself holds over 8,000 BTC and is generating billions of dollars each quarter from crypto sales.

Why single out Dorsey and the Block ecosystem? Well, the answer is simple — no one else is building crypto into its business model at Block’s scale. They’re not just big fish, they’re whales in the TradFi world. Square alone is valued somewhere north of $124 billion.

That’s why Dorsey’s bold move toward crypto is likely to have major repercussions for his competitors and will likely reshape the conversation about crypto for years to come.