Block to pay $764 million to settle DOJ money-laundering probe as Cash App bitcoin profit halves

Block, the payments company run by Jack Dorsey that owns Cash App, has agreed in principle to pay $764 million to settle a US Justice Department investigation into its anti-money-laundering controls, CoinDesk reported, citing a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on 3 November 2026.

In rupees, the settlement is about Rs 211 billion at today's dollar rate (USD to PKR).

The settlement

• Gross amount: about $964 million, cut to $764 million after credit for earlier regulatory settlements.
• Already set aside: Block has reserved the full $764 million.
• Form: a deferred agreement. A criminal charge that Block failed to keep an effective anti-money-laundering programme, as the Bank Secrecy Act requires, would be deferred for three years.
• Reached: in October, disclosed in the 3 November filing.

The probe began in 2023, when the DOJ and the SEC looked at Block's compliance and disclosures after a short-seller report by Hindenburg Research. Block rejected the report's findings, and the SEC closed its own investigation in March without recommending action.

Separately, New York's financial regulator fined Block $40 million in April 2025, finding that its backlog of suspicious-transaction alerts grew from about 18,000 in 2018 to more than 169,000 by 2020.

Third-quarter numbers

Block said bitcoin profit fell mainly because it cut fees on some bitcoin transactions. Overall gross profit grew on Cash App lending and payments. The settlement is larger than the whole quarter's profit.

Why readers here should care

Cash App is not available in Pakistan, but Block's bitcoin business is one of the biggest retail on-ramps in the US, and its numbers are a guide to how much ordinary buyers are trading. A 50% drop in bitcoin profit fits the picture of a cooler market: bitcoin dipped on the US midterm results this week before recovering towards $78,000 (today's markets). Our bitcoin price page tracks the dollar price daily.

For anyone in Pakistan using crypto, the case is also a reminder that regulators everywhere are focused on money-laundering checks: the SECP's recent ban on Ponzi and pyramid schemes, including on apps (our report), points the same way.