Jack Dorsey's Block faces $764 million DOJ settlement as bitcoin profit plunges 50%

Jack Dorsey's payments company Block has agreed in principle to pay $764 million to resolve a U.S. Justice Department investigation into its anti-money-laundering controls — a proposed settlement larger than the $566 million profit it reported for the third quarter.

The agreement, reached in October and disclosed in a November 3 SEC filing viewed by CoinDesk, would defer for three years a criminal charge alleging that Block failed to maintain an effective anti-money-laundering program, as required under the Bank Secrecy Act.

The proposed resolution carries a gross monetary component of approximately $964 million, reduced to $764 million after credits for earlier regulatory settlements. Block has already set aside the latter amount, it said in the filing.

The investigation dates to 2023, when the Justice Department and Securities and Exchange Commission began examining allegations concerning Block's compliance practices and related disclosures following a short-seller report. The SEC closed its separate investigation in March without recommending enforcement action.

The report, by short seller Hindenburg Research, alleged that Cash App inflated its user numbers by counting duplicate and fraudulent accounts, while weak identity checks allowed criminals to use the platform for scams, money laundering and other illicit payments.

Block rejected the findings as inaccurate and misleading.

In April 2025, New York's financial regulator fined Block $40 million after finding serious gaps in its compliance systems. The investigation found that a backlog of suspicious transaction alerts had grown from about 18,000 in 2018 to more than 169,000 by 2020.

The regulator also found that one of Block's screening systems did not automatically block bitcoin transfers to wallets linked to terrorism financing until their exposure exceeded 10%.

Meanwhile, Tuesday’s filing comes as Block earns less from bitcoin trading on Cash App.

The firm reported its bitcoin ecosystem gross profit fell 50% to $52 million in the third quarter, from $104 million a year earlier, while revenue declined 11% to $1.8 billion. Block attributed the profit decline primarily to its decision to reduce fees on certain bitcoin transactions.

The rest of the business continued growing. Block's overall gross profit rose 22% to $3.24 billion, helped by stronger activity across Cash App's lending and payments businesses.