Bitcoin purist Jack Dorsey says that his firm is reluctantly giving in to stablecoin craze

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Finance

What to know:

  • Block CEO Jack Dorsey says the company will support stablecoins due to customer demand, despite previously advocating for Bitcoin as the sole internet money protocol.
  • The shift comes as stablecoins surge in popularity and competitors like Stripe and PayPal add stablecoin options, increasing market pressure.
  • Dorsey maintains that Bitcoin’s decentralized model remains his preferred choice for an open financial protocol.

Ah, Jack Dorsey. The man who once scoffed at the idea of anything other than Bitcoin dominating the internet’s financial realm now finds himself reluctantly bending to the mighty demand for stablecoins. How the mighty have fallen. Or maybe, how the pragmatic have evolved. In a candid interview with WIRED, Dorsey admitted that, despite his deep personal convictions, his company must now embrace the inevitable.

“I don’t like that we’re going to support stablecoins but our customers want to use them,” Dorsey confessed, clearly wrestling with the internal turmoil of a Bitcoin purist. “I don’t think it’s wise to go from one gatekeeper to another,” he added, as though stablecoins were some kind of shackles being forced upon him by the impatient masses.

This marks a rather pragmatic shift for Dorsey, one of Silicon Valley’s loudest Bitcoin evangelists. For years, he insisted that Block’s crypto ambitions would revolve solely around Bitcoin-he even funded mining hardware and integrated Bitcoin into products like the Cash App. But now? Now, he’s grudgingly embracing the stablecoin revolution. Well, you can’t fight the market, can you?

In fact, Block was one of the first to allow users to buy and sell Bitcoin through the Cash App, earning itself a BitLicense from New York regulators just a year later. They even started a Bitcoin development arm in 2019, plowing millions into Bitcoin and the Lightning Network. In 2020, Block’s treasury added Bitcoin, with a hefty 8,888.3 BTC currently held-worth over $600 million. But stablecoins? Oh, they’re still not his first love.

Stablecoins are growing up fast. Tokens pegged to fiat currencies now dominate crypto markets and cross-border payments, with a market cap of $318 billion, according to CoinMarketCap. Meanwhile, competitors like Stripe and PayPal have jumped on the stablecoin bandwagon, further pressuring Dorsey to adapt or risk losing customers. Though, unsurprisingly, he didn’t name-drop these giants in the interview. Hmm.

This isn’t the first time Block has begrudgingly supported stablecoins, mind you. Back in November, Cash App began supporting stablecoins, converting them instantly into U.S. dollars. Yes, the same Jack Dorsey who, back in 2024, scoffed at Facebook’s Libra stablecoin with a firm “Hell no.” Funny how times change, isn’t it?

He wasn’t shy back then, either. Dorsey slammed the Libra project, calling it “born out of a company’s intention,” and not in line with his own personal beliefs or the values Block stood for. But today, he remains steadfast in his belief that Bitcoin’s decentralized nature makes it the superior open financial protocol. Some things never change, apparently.

And just to make the plot even juicier, Dorsey’s company recently cut 40% of its workforce, citing AI-driven structural changes. This sparked an uproar, as people wondered whether the company had overhired. Dorsey, of course, brushed aside the question and doubled down on the AI angle. Because, why not, right? He’s “ahead” of all his competitors on metrics like cost and revenue per employee. He knows the future’s coming, and it’s powered by AI.

“I don’t know what the ultimate outcome is, but I do know it’s going to have a dramatic effect,” Dorsey mused, as if staring into the abyss of a future none of us can quite understand. AI-driven layoffs? Bitcoin vs. stablecoins? The drama continues to unfold, and one can’t help but wonder what Dorsey will reluctantly embrace next.

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2026-03-07 20:30