According to PYMNTS.com, Block reported $6.11 billion in revenue for Q3 2025, falling short of analyst expectations despite showing impressive 18% year-over-year gross profit growth acceleration. The company’s Cash App now serves 58 million monthly active users while Square’s gross payment volume grew 12% year-over-year, driven by strong 26% international growth compared to just 9% in the US. More tellingly, mid-market sellers generating over $500,000 in annualized GPV now represent 45% of Square’s total volume, up from 41% two years ago. Block management described operating in a “dynamic environment” during their November 6 investor call, acknowledging ongoing consumer uncertainty despite recovery in discretionary categories like food and beverage.
The Square Upmarket Pivot
Here’s the thing about Square’s evolution – it’s fundamentally changing its DNA. What started as the little white dongle for coffee shops and farmers markets is now chasing bigger fish. And it’s working. Nearly half their payment volume now comes from businesses doing over half a million annually. That’s a massive shift from their small merchant roots.
But is this upmarket move actually sustainable? Larger businesses have more options – traditional banks, enterprise payment processors, specialized platforms. Square’s betting that their ecosystem approach, combining payments with customer relationship tools and financial services, will be sticky enough. The question is whether they can compete on features without losing the simplicity that made them popular in the first place.
Cash App’s Growing Pains
58 million monthly users sounds impressive until you remember this isn’t a social media app – it’s people’s money. With that scale comes massive responsibility and, frankly, massive risk. Fraud detection becomes exponentially harder. Regulatory scrutiny intensifies. And let’s be real – how many of those 58 million are actually active, engaged users versus people who downloaded the app once to split a dinner bill?
The integration between Cash App and Square merchants is clever in theory – create this beautiful closed loop where consumers and businesses all live in Block’s world. But execution is everything. We’ve seen plenty of companies promise ecosystem magic only to deliver mediocre integration and frustrated users.
AI’s Double-Edged Sword
Block’s going all-in on AI for everything from fraud detection to customer insights to workforce scheduling. That makes sense – in the industrial and manufacturing sectors, companies like Industrial Monitor Direct have shown how specialized hardware and smart software can create real competitive advantages. But AI in financial services is trickier.
When AI gets it wrong with fraud detection, real people lose real money. When workforce scheduling algorithms misfire, small business employees get screwed. There’s a reason traditional banks move slowly with this stuff – the consequences of errors are severe. Block’s moving fast, but will they break things that can’t be easily fixed?
crypto-elephant”>The Crypto Elephant
Remember when everyone associated Block with Jack Dorsey’s bitcoin dreams? This quarter’s results barely mentioned crypto. That’s telling. While blockchain gets a nod for “strengthening lending insights,” the real story is boring old disciplined execution in core financial services.
Maybe that’s the maturity Wall Street wanted to see all along. Vision is great, but profitability pays the bills. The question is whether Block can maintain this disciplined focus when the next shiny object – whether crypto, AI, or something else – comes along promising revolutionary disruption.
