Today's discussion includes forward-looking statements regarding our strategy, guidance, and long-term goals. Throughout the call, I will ask questions directly of Jack, Amrita, Owen, and Thomas based on topics our shareholders asked us to explore on our earnings call. We had a strong second quarter, and we're raising our guidance for the year based on the strength of our execution. Intelligence tools are making it easier to build all the software we need.

We outperformed our guidance and achieved record profitability in the second quarter. We grew gross profit 25% year-over-year while delivering an all-time high 27% adjusted operating income margin and growing adjusted diluted EPS 65% year-over-year. Square gross profit and GPV both grew 13% year-over-year in the second quarter, with U.S. GPV growth accelerating to our strongest growth rate since the second quarter of 2023.

We drove strong gross profit growth across commerce enablement and financial solutions, and we continue to expect gross profit to grow roughly in line with GPV in the second half of the year. Monthly transacting actives grew 3% year-over-year in June, and we continue to expect low single-digit actives growth in 2026 as we execute on our network growth strategies. Cash App commerce enablement volume grew 17%, and Cash App consumer lending origination volume grew 59%, reflecting our focus on driving deeper engagement. We achieved record profitability this quarter while continuing to invest in the long-term growth of our business.

What went well
  • Block outperformed its guidance and achieved record profitability, growing gross profit 25% year over year while delivering an all-time-high 27% adjusted operating income margin and adjusted diluted EPS up 65% to $1.02.
  • Square gross profit and GPV both grew 13%, with U.S. GPV accelerating to its strongest growth rate since the second quarter of 2023; new sellers from the ISO channel grew over 150% sequentially, with more than 200 active ISO partners.
  • Cash App gross profit grew 31%, with monthly transacting actives up 3% year over year in June, consumer lending origination volume up 59%, and commerce enablement volume up 17%.
  • Block raised full-year 2026 guidance across all key metrics: gross profit to $12.51 billion (+21%), adjusted operating income to $3.47 billion (28% margin), and adjusted diluted EPS growth to 70%.
  • Neighborhoods, the program connecting the Square and Cash App ecosystems, demonstrated strong product-market fit, with annualized seller GPV crossing $1 billion in June (up 220% year over year) and new-seller onboarding running 8x March levels in July.
  • AI-driven velocity showed up in results: code changes per engineer rose 150% since the start of the year, Square shipped 130 features in the first half (more than 3x a year earlier), and the Tags hardware product and Buzz agentic platform launched to strong reception.
What went wrong
  • On a GAAP basis, operating income of $447 million declined from $484 million a year earlier, and GAAP diluted EPS was just $0.15, even as adjusted profitability set records.
  • Total net revenue grew only about 9% year over year to $6.62 billion, well below the 25% gross profit growth, partly reflecting deliberate Bitcoin pricing decisions that have been a revenue headwind this year.
  • Cash App monthly transacting actives grew just 3% year over year, and management expects only low-single-digit actives growth for 2026.
  • Cash App faces tougher comparisons in the back half as it laps the meteoric prior-year scaling of Cash App Borrow, with consumer lending origination growth expected to normalize.
  • Hardware input costs, especially memory, are inflating in what management (echoing peers) called a '100-year flood,' and Block expects its costs to rise over time even with its deep supply-chain relationships.
  • Square's Q2 gross profit included roughly two points of tariff-reimbursement benefit that was offset by a roughly two-point network-remediation comparison from the prior year, two largely one-time items that netted out.

Guidance Changes

MetricPeriodCurrent guidance
Full-year gross profitFY2026$12.51 billion, up 21% (raised)
Full-year adjusted operating incomeFY2026$3.47 billion, a 28% margin (raised)
Full-year adjusted diluted EPS growthFY2026+70% year over year (raised)
Q3 gross profit growthQ3 2026+18% year over year
Q3 adjusted operating income margin / EPSQ3 202628% adjusted operating income margin; adjusted diluted EPS up 89%
Q4 exit gross profit growthQ4 2026Mid-teens (consistent with Investor Day framework)
Interest expense / tax rateFY2026Q3 interest expense $50M-$55M; FY $200M-$210M; mid-20% non-GAAP effective tax rate

Performance Breakdown

MetricYoYNote
Total net revenue +9.3% to $6.62B Grew more slowly than gross profit, partly due to deliberate Bitcoin pricing decisions.
Gross profit +25% Broad-based strength across Square and Cash App, commerce enablement, and financial solutions.
Square gross profit & GPV +13% each Strongest U.S. GPV growth since Q2 2023 on product velocity, ramping distribution (self-onboard, field sales, ISOs), and pricing/packaging; mid-market and international (25% constant currency) strong.
Cash App gross profit +31% Deeper engagement across commerce, banking, and lending; inflows per active up and consumer lending origination up 59%.
GAAP operating income $447M (6.8% of net revenue; down from $484M) GAAP profitability declined year over year even as adjusted metrics set records.
Adjusted operating income Record $864M (27% margin) Strong gross profit growth translating into an all-time-high adjusted operating income margin.
Adjusted EBITDA Record $1.2B Record profitability alongside continued long-term investment.
Adjusted diluted EPS $1.02 (+65%) Margin expansion and profitable growth; GAAP diluted EPS was $0.15.

Earnings Call Themes & Trends

TopicPrevious mentionCurrent periodTrend
AI at the center of the companyReorganized around intelligence six months agoBuzz agentic collaboration platform launched publicly in July; goose remains model-agnostic with an internal per-task model-evaluation system routing workloads for cost/quality efficiency; management refuses to constrain developer velocity, citing 150% higher code changes per engineer.
Neighborhoods (ecosystem connection)Early rolloutConfirmed product-market fit with annualized seller GPV over $1 billion (+220%); follower spend reaches ~10% of a seller's GPV within three quarters; focus shifting to accelerating seller-side distribution and density.
Cash App durable growthBorrow-led growthManagement outlined a four-part ecosystem (network, banking, commerce, Bitcoin) with runway from Neighborhoods, Teams & Families, Tags, Afterpay on Cash App Card, and new bets, aiming to sustain growth while lapping Borrow; Borrow loss rates remain healthy and expected to moderate.
Square Financial ServicesLending onlyExpanding beyond lending: sellers holding $10,000+ in Square savings now earn a 3.5% APY (8x the national average) to build a low-cost deposit base, and SFS processed its first Square acquiring transactions in June, a multi-year effort to bring processing in-house for resilience.
Hardware and supply chainProduct differentiationDeep multi-tier supplier relationships let Block identify the memory constraint mid-last-year and mitigate it, avoiding back-orders; Tags (a viral NFC 'payment wand') launched with three form factors, sold out quickly, and drew over 3 million notify-me sign-ups with zero marketing.
Bitcoin pricing strategyDeliberate pricing decisions to be the simplest and cheapest Bitcoin exchange have been a revenue headwind this year but are gaining relative share.

Q&A Summary

Tianjun Wang (JPMorgan) asked for a progress report six months into the reorg and what proof points show the AI-centric model is on track.
Jack Dorsey said Block is on track, citing shipping velocity and the rapid, rich launch of Buzz built on two years of compounding work (Block released a coding harness before Claude Code); the next step is delivering the same 'magic' simply to Cash App customers and sellers who want AI help.
Jason Kupferberg (Wells Fargo) asked whether recent conservatism was factored into the raised second-half outlook and for segment-level gross profit color.
Amrita Ahuja described broad-based Q2 strength (25% gross profit growth, Cash App actives and inflows-per-active both up, Square GPV accelerating), consistent July run-rates supporting 18% Q3 gross profit growth with margin expansion, and a mid-teens Q4 exit as Cash App Borrow comps toughen; Square gross profit is expected to accelerate and grow roughly in line with GPV.
Will Nance (Goldman Sachs) asked about the hardware and memory-cost environment and how Block's hardware strategy differs.
Thomas Templeton said Block's deep, multi-tier supply-chain relationships let it spot the memory constraint mid-last-year and mitigate it (never going on back-order, as in COVID), and while the industry faces an unprecedented '100-year flood' and costs will rise over time, Block has a good handle on the trajectory and can manage it.
Adam Frisch (Evercore) asked what gives confidence in durable Cash App gross profit growth as Borrow laps, and about the loss rate.
Owen Jennings pointed to a massive addressable market (100M+ modern earners), deep engagement runway across a four-part ecosystem, and inflecting products like Neighborhoods, Tags, and Afterpay; Ahuja said Borrow cohort loss rates remain healthy and improve with seasoning, with year-over-year loss growth expected to moderate through 2026.
Tim Chiodo (UBS) asked about Square Financial Services taking deposits and acting as the acquiring sponsor bank.
Ahuja described three benefits (product optionality/resilience, better economics and reach, and direct regulator connection), highlighted the new 3.5% APY deposit product to build a low-cost funding base for lending, and noted SFS processed its first Square acquiring transactions in June as part of a multi-year in-house migration.
Nikolai Cremo (Barclays) asked about Block's AI cost strategy with a model-agnostic approach and AI monetization for Manager Bot and Money Bot.
Ahuja said Block is well positioned via goose's model-agnostic build and an internal evaluation system scoring models on quality and cost from real production data, routing work to the most efficient model rather than constraining velocity; Owen Jennings said there is clear willingness to pay for Manager Bot, Money Bot, and Buzz, with potential SaaS-tier, direct, or usage-based pricing, while stressing seller success ultimately flows through to GPV.

More on Block, Inc.

Reported 2026-08-05 · figures from the Block, Inc. Q2 2026 earnings call.

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