Block has agreed in principle to pay $764 million to resolve a U.S. Justice Department investigation into its anti-money-laundering controls. The amount is greater than the $566 million profit the company reported for the third quarter. The agreement was reached in October and disclosed in a 10-Q filing on Nov. 3; it still requires final approval.
The deal would defer for three years a criminal charge that Block failed to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program under the Bank Secrecy Act. The gross settlement figure is about $964 million, reduced to $764 million after credits for earlier regulatory settlements. Block has accrued the full amount and said additional losses are reasonably possible. The company disputes the government’s assessment and the method used to calculate it.
The provision comes despite growth in Block’s overall gross profit, which rose 22% to $3.24 billion. Cash App gross profit increased 27% to $2.07 billion, while Square’s rose 14% to $1.16 billion, according to the company.
Bitcoin was a weaker area. Gross profit from Block’s bitcoin business fell 50% year over year, from $104 million to $52 million, and bitcoin revenue declined 11% to $1.8 billion. Block attributed the profit drop to lower fees on some Cash App bitcoin transactions, part of a strategy to position bitcoin as a payment method rather than primarily as a trading product.
The Justice Department inquiry followed allegations made by short seller Hindenburg Research in March 2023. Hindenburg claimed Cash App had inflated user numbers with duplicate and fraudulent accounts and that weak identity checks enabled scams and money laundering. Block rejected the report as inaccurate and misleading. The Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission subsequently opened inquiries into compliance practices and related disclosures; the SEC closed its investigation in March without recommending enforcement.
State regulators also reached settlements with Block. New York’s Department of Financial Services fined the company $40 million in April 2025 over shortcomings that included a backlog of suspicious-activity alerts. A multistate settlement in January 2025 added $80 million. Those payments account for part of the $200 million credit applied to the Justice Department figure.
Under the deferred-prosecution arrangement, Block could avoid a conviction if it meets the agreement’s terms over three years. The settlement comes as the company pursues an industrial bank charter for Builders Bank, a unit intended to offer bitcoin custody and fiduciary services.
Block has also expanded payment-related bitcoin initiatives. It enabled about 1 million Square merchants to accept Lightning payments in May, waived bitcoin processing fees through 2026 and launched a national advertising campaign in October focused on spending bitcoin. The company reported that revenue from bitcoin sales to customers fell as the asset’s price declined from about $114,000 to $70,000 over the year.
Sources: Bitcoin Magazine.