Radhika Parashar
Block, the fintech firm founded by Twitter (now X) father Jack Dorsey, has secured itself a spot on the elite S&P 500 index. The Oakland, California-based company brings $1 billion wrapped in 8,548 BTC on its balance sheet, as per on-chain data analytics firm Bitbo.
The S&P index, maintained by financial intelligence firm Standard & Poor’s (S&P) Global, lists the top 500 publicly traded firms in the US. For Block, its entry into this list comes a decade after it went public in 2015. Its initial public offering (IPO) price was $9 per share.
In the backdrop of its S&P 500 listing, the stock of Block surged by nine percent, taking its price to the present mark of $79.90.
Newsletter
Get weekly updates on the newest crypto stories, case studies and tips right in your mailbox.
S&P Global released an announcement on Block’s addition to its index earlier last week.
“Block Inc. (NYSE: XYZ) will replace Hess Corp. (NYSE: HES) in the S&P 500 effective prior to the opening of trading on Wednesday, July 23. S&P 500 and S&P 100 constituent Chevron Corp. (NYSE: CVX) has acquired Hess Corp in a deal that closed today, July 18,” the statement from the fintech firm said.
On Wednesday, the chief operating officer (COO) and chief financial officer (CFO) of Block, Amrita Ahuja took to X lauding the development.
“It’s not a finish line. It is a signal that what we’re building has staying power. Inclusion brings broader exposure,” she posted.
Block Inc. was launched as “Square” in 2009, has been known to be acquiring BTC tokens for around five years. In October 2020, Square had announced the purchase or around 4,709 BTC at an aggregate purchase price of $50 million.
At present, the company makes for a large umbrella for Dorsey-backed other fintech services including the Cash App, a mobile payment service and the Square Seller business, which is a payments processing platform designed to cater particularly to businesses among others.
Amid the evolving regulatory landscape around crypto, Block is looking to expand its footprint in the Bitcoin arena. On July 22, Dorsey himself posted that the company is forging a path towards BTC as “everyday money”.
Starting this week, the Square Seller business platform has started onboarding select clients to try out a native BTC acceptance experience for business settlements.
It is noteworthy, that while gradually, crypto-focussed firms are making strides to capture the attention of Wall Street giants that once saw BTC as game money. Back in May, for instance, Coinbase became the first crypto firm to have made it to the S&P 500 index. Coinbase had gone public in April 2021.
