Block Nears $964M DOJ Settlement Over Cash App AML Failures

Block just blinked first — or at least settled. The company behind Cash App and Square says it has struck an agreement in principle with the U.S. Department of Justice that would defer an anti-money laundering charge for three years, with a gross price tag of roughly $964 million.

The sting is smaller than it looks. Credits for earlier regulatory resolutions knock the net payment down to about $764 million, per Block's latest quarterly filing. That's the figure already sitting on its books as of Sept. 30, 2026, when the company reported $7.86 billion in cash and cash equivalents.

Nothing is signed yet. The two sides shook hands on the framework in October, but it still needs a final agreement all parties can live with and a judge's blessing. Under the proposed deferred prosecution agreement, the DOJ would shelve a charge that Block failed to keep an effective AML program, a violation of the Bank Secrecy Act. Behave for three years and prosecutors would move to dismiss that charge with prejudice — slip up, and the whole thing could come roaring back. Block also warned the final terms could cost more than the $764 million it has set aside.

This isn't Block's first run-in with watchdogs. In April 2025, New York's Department of Financial Services made the company pay $40 million and install an independent monitor for a 12-month stretch that the regulator can extend. That order flagged weak customer checks and transaction monitoring across both fiat and bitcoin activity on Cash App, noting the alert backlog ballooned from about 18,000 in 2018 to more than 169,000 by 2020. New York did give Block credit for cleaning up its act — more compliance staff, caps on how many accounts one customer can open, and tighter controls on banned users sneaking back in.

The DOJ headache landed alongside a rough quarter for Block's bitcoin arm. Bitcoin ecosystem gross profit came in at $52 million, half the $104 million from a year earlier, according to the company's third-quarter shareholder letter. Revenue in that segment slid 11%, landing at about $1.8 billion. Block blamed its own decision to cut fees on certain Cash App bitcoin transactions. That bucket covers customer bitcoin buys in Cash App, Proto, and withdrawal fees.

The wider business is humming, which softens the blow. Overall gross profit climbed 22%, reaching $3.24 billion, while Cash App's total gross profit jumped 27% to $2.07 billion. Block now waits on a judge and a final signature — and on keeping its nose clean for the next three years.