At Bitcoin 2026 in Las Vegas, Block’s Bitcoin Product Lead Miles Suter took the stage with a straightforward message: bitcoin needs to circulate as everyday money, not just sit in wallets. His talk framed Block’s product strategy around the idea that for bitcoin to succeed, it must function as peer-to-peer cash.
The presentation came a day after Block announced a wave of bitcoin-focused products at the conference. Suter pointed to growing merchant adoption as evidence the strategy is working. Block now has over 800,000 Square businesses with bitcoin payments auto-enrollment enabled. A new business activates the feature every eight seconds, he said.
Block’s March 2026 decision to automatically enable bitcoin payments for eligible U.S. Square sellers helped drive those numbers. Suter also introduced a tap-to-pay bitcoin feature that uses NFC hardware and the Lightning Network for settlement. The system requires no QR codes and carries zero processing fees through 2026.
Building an Income Loop
Suter described a future where workers receive paychecks through Cash App, convert part of that to bitcoin, and move funds into self-custody. That vision ties into Block’s upgraded product stack announced Monday. Cash App now offers auto-conversion of peer-to-peer payments into bitcoin, a 5% Bitcoin Back rewards program at Square merchants, and higher bitcoin withdrawal limits: $10,000 per day and $25,000 per week.
On the custody side, Block debuted a new Bitkey hardware wallet with a built-in touchscreen and 2-of-3 multisig architecture. It removes the need for seed phrases by tying transaction verification directly to the device screen.
Proof of Reserves and Transparency
Block published its Q1 2026 Proof of Reserves on April 27, disclosing total holdings of 28,355.05 BTC worth roughly $2.2 billion. Of that total, 19,357.16 BTC belonged to customers, while Block’s corporate treasury held 8,997.89 BTC valued about $696 million. The reserves dashboard uses on-chain cryptographic signatures for public verification, and Block said the holdings reflect active control rather than historical snapshots.
The disclosure places Block among a growing list of firms adopting on-chain transparency, though analysts noted that proof-of-reserves alone doesn’t show liabilities or customer obligations.
Suter’s panel, titled “Living on Bitcoin,” pushed the theme of bitcoin for everyday transactions. A separate session at Bitcoin 2026 advocated for a de minimis tax exemption on small bitcoin transactions, which would remove capital gains reporting burdens that currently discourage spending.
Jack Dorsey has argued that bitcoin will fail as a technology if it cannot function as money. Suter echoed that view, saying Block’s goal is to make bitcoin “everyday money.”
