Square becomes the latest high-profile company to change its name, rebranding to Block, following in the steps of Meta.
Jack Dorsey’s payment giant said it was doing so to focus on technologies including blockchain, a known passion of the Twitter founder.
The company was initially started up as a credit-card reader business in 2009, however has ventured into a number of different financial markets including BNPL, digital banking, small business lending and stock trading.
Square also acquired BNPL firm Afterpay and Jay-Z’s music streaming platform Tidal.
The company’s cryptography division, Square Crypto will change its name to Spiral in order to “advance” Bitcoin.
Block said in an announcement that the new name, effective Dec. 10, “acknowledges the company’s growth” and “creates room for further growth.”
Block will still trade under the ticker SQ on the New York Stock Exchange.
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“We built the Square brand for our Seller business, which is where it belongs,” Dorsey said.
“Block is a new name, but our purpose of economic empowerment remains the same.
“No matter how we grow or change, we will continue to build tools to help increase access to the economy.”
Block claimed that the name “has many associated meanings for the company — building blocks, neighborhood blocks and their local businesses, communities coming together at block parties full of music, a blockchain, a section of code, and obstacles to overcome.”
The news comes after Dorsey stepped down from his role as Twitter chief executive earlier this week, saying he felt the company was ready to “move on from its founders”.
It also follows the groundbreaking announcement that Facebook was changing its name to Meta to reflect Mark Zuckerberg’s vision of a virtual world.