Block: the rule covers buying
Block is the only company in this series to publish a manual: two documents on how it buys, stores, insures and accounts for bitcoin, and a monthly formula. None of them says when it would sell.
The short version
- $220M
- spent on two purchases, in October 2020 and February 2021
- 10%
- of monthly gross profit from bitcoin products to be invested in bitcoin, under a program announced in May 2024
- 9,117
- bitcoin at June 30, 2026: cost $310.2 million, fair value $533.9 million
- 0
- sales of investment bitcoin. Block says so in its reports for each period from 2023 to mid-2026
What happened
October 2020
$50 million and a whitepaper
Square, as Block was then called, bought about 4,709 bitcoin for $50 million, about 1% of its total assets. It published a whitepaper describing how it bought the bitcoin, how it stores and insures it, and how it accounts for it.[1][2]
February 2021
$170 million more
Square bought about 3,318 bitcoin for $170 million. Together the two purchases came to about 5% of its cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities at the end of 2020. It said it would assess the investment against its other investments on an ongoing basis.[3]
May 2021
What treasury said about the purchases
NeuGroup reported that Square’s global treasury lead told a peer-group session that each one-off purchase requires separate conversations with senior leadership and the board, and that bitcoin is not part of the investment policy. This is a secondary account. Block’s own documents name no approver.[4]
2021 and 2022
Impairment
Under the old rules Block wrote the holding down by $71.1 million in 2021 and $46.6 million in 2022. At the end of 2022 the bitcoin was carried at $102.3 million and was worth $133 million.[5][6][7]
Fourth quarter of 2023
Fair value, early
Block adopted the fair-value standard early. Its 8,038 bitcoin went onto the balance sheet at $339.9 million, and the year carried a $207.1 million gain. (The two purchases were announced as about 4,709 and 3,318, which is 8,027. The filings report 8,038 and do not explain the difference.)[7]
May 2024
A standing rule for buying
Block said it would invest 10% of its monthly gross profit from bitcoin products in bitcoin, starting in April 2024, buying each month over a two-hour window. It published a second document, the Bitcoin Blueprint for Corporate Balance Sheets, covering purchases, custody, insurance and accounting.[8][9]
2024 to mid-2026
Adding every quarter, selling nothing
Block added 447 bitcoin in 2024, 398 in 2025 and 234 in the first half of 2026, for about $90 million in total (our sum). It joined the S&P 500 in July 2025. At June 30, 2026 it held 9,117 bitcoin with a cost basis of $310.2 million and a fair value of $533.9 million. Its reports for 2023, 2024, 2025 and the first half of 2026 each state that it did not sell any of its bitcoin investment.[10][13][16][17][12][11][14][18]
2024 to mid-2026
What fair value did to earnings
With nothing sold, the holding still moved reported results: a $420.9 million gain in 2024, a $55.9 million loss in 2025 and a $261.3 million loss in the first half of 2026. Block reports the item on its own line below operating income and excludes it from its adjusted measures.[10][13][17][15]
Four questions, and what the record shows
A sale policy answers four questions before a sale happens. This is what Block’s public record says about each.
- When may bitcoin be sold?
- Not stated. Block has published two documents and a monthly buying rule, and none of them sets a condition for selling. Its annual and quarterly reports say only that it expects to hold the bitcoin for the long term “but will continue to reassess our bitcoin investment relative to our balance sheet.” The risk factor on the investment covers price and accounting and says nothing about a sale.[2][9][14][18]
- Who approves a sale?
- Not stated. Block’s own documents name no approver for a purchase or a sale. The only account of how the 2020 and 2021 purchases were discussed internally is secondary.[2][9][4]
- How is a sale disclosed?
- There is no precedent, because no sale has been reported. Holdings are disclosed every quarter in a note that shows the opening balance, additions and remeasurement, in bitcoin and in dollars. The management discussion in each report also says in a sentence whether any investment bitcoin was sold.[17][18]
- How are the proceeds used?
- Not stated, and not yet tested. Separately, Block keeps a small operating balance of bitcoin to serve Cash App customers, about 299 at June 30, 2026. That balance is bought and sold continuously and is not the investment position.[17]
What the accounting did
Block has reported no sale, and its results have still moved by hundreds of millions of dollars a year. The table shows the investment position and the gain or loss booked on it.
| Date | Bitcoin held | On the balance sheet | Gain or loss for the period |
|---|---|---|---|
| December 31, 2022 | 8,038 | $102.3 million, at cost less impairment | $46.6 million impairment for the year |
| December 31, 2023 | 8,038 | $339.9 million | $207.1 million gain for the year |
| December 31, 2024 | 8,485 | $792.3 million | $420.9 million gain for the year |
| December 31, 2025 | 8,883 | $777.5 million | $55.9 million loss for the year |
| June 30, 2026 | 9,117 | $533.9 million | $261.3 million loss for six months |
What a board can take from it
A full buying rule, and no selling rule.
Block tells the market how much it buys, when, by what method, where the bitcoin is stored and how it is insured. Few holders publish that much. The documents leave out the sale, and who would decide it.
A formula removes discretion in one direction.
Ten percent of a profit line, every month, is a decision made once. A sale would be a new decision. At a company that buys by formula, a first sale will read as a change of mind unless the conditions were written down first.
Size has made holding easy so far.
The two original purchases were about 5% of Block’s cash and securities at the end of 2020, and the position has not been called on to fund anything. Several of the companies in this series sold to pay dividends, interest or lenders.
Fair value reaches earnings without a sale.
Block’s bitcoin added $420.9 million to reported results in one year and took away $261.3 million in six months. The board of a holder that never sells still has those numbers to explain every quarter.
Sources
- Square press release, October 8, 2020
- Square, Bitcoin Investment Whitepaper, October 2020
- Square fourth-quarter 2020 results release, February 23, 2021
- NeuGroup, May 13, 2021
- Block fourth-quarter 2021 shareholder letter
- Block fourth-quarter 2022 shareholder letter
- Block Form 10-K for 2023, bitcoin note
- Block first-quarter 2024 shareholder letter, May 2, 2024
- Block, Bitcoin Blueprint for Corporate Balance Sheets
- Block Form 10-K for 2024, bitcoin note
- Block Form 10-K for 2024
- Block press release, July 18, 2025
- Block Form 10-K for 2025, bitcoin note
- Block Form 10-K for 2025
- Block fourth-quarter 2025 shareholder letter
- Block Form 10-Q, March 31, 2026
- Block Form 10-Q, June 30, 2026, bitcoin note
- Block Form 10-Q, June 30, 2026
Satoshi Institute has no relationship with Block. This analysis draws only on public filings and published reporting. It says nothing about Block’s internal policies beyond what those sources show. Published . Last reviewed .
Other case studies
- MARA: the sale that retired the debt
Sold 15,133 bitcoin in three weeks and used the money to retire $1.0 billion of convertible notes below face value.
- Strategy: “never sell” was not the policy
Sold in May 2026 for the first time since 2022. The board program followed in June. Weekly disclosure, and no price trigger.
- Sequans: the lenders held the keys
Raised equity and debt to buy bitcoin and pledged all of it to the lenders. Selling the pledged coins needed their consent. None left fourteen months later.
- Metaplanet: a sale to prove it could
Sold 10,000 bitcoin and bought back 11,000 in one quarter, to show rating agencies it could. Its position on selling came with the disclosure.
- Tesla: the company that sold
Bought under a policy the Audit Committee approved. Sold with no published rule. What the filings show.
The Sale Policy Sprint answers the four questions
A board-ready policy that settles when bitcoin may be sold, who approves it, how it is disclosed and how the proceeds are used. Fixed fee, 15 business days.