Block Inc., the fintech company founded by Jack Dorsey and home to Cash App and Square, is joining the S&P 500 this week. The news sent the company’s stock up 10% in after-hours Friday as investors welcomed the company to the club of America’s largest public companies.
Block will replace oil company Hess Corp. in the index. The change comes after Chevron completed its $54 billion acquisition of Hess on July 18, and Hess is no longer eligible to be in the index.
The fintech firm will be added to the index before the open on Wednesday, July 23, according to S&P Global. This is the second addition to the S&P 500 this week, after The Trade Desk replaced Ansys, which was acquired by Synopsys.
For Block, this is more than just a new bullet point on the resume — it’s a major milestone for the company. From its humble beginnings as a simple payments company called Square, the company has grown into a full-fledged financial technology company.
It now offers lending services like Cash App Borrow and is heavily involved in bitcoin.
Block has 8,584 bitcoin in its corporate treasury and has been developing bitcoin payment features for merchants through Square.
At the Bitcoin 2025 conference, Square announced the adoption of Bitcoin Lightning Network, a technology for faster and cheaper transactions.
Analysts say this is more than a headline, as it makes way for trillions in passive flows to get closer to Bitcoin.
Dorsey‘s company is the second digital asset company to join the S&P 500, after Coinbase, which joined in June, and became the top-performing stock last month with a 43% gain.
Both companies offer traditional investors something new: passive exposure to bitcoin. As more index funds and ETFs track the S&P 500, they have to hold shares of companies like Block and Coinbase — whether they want to invest in bitcoin or not.
For many traditional investors, having some exposure to bitcoin is becoming the new normal — even if they didn’t actively seek it out.
And the broader digital asset market is hot too. The global digital assets market cap just hit $4 trillion for the first time, 61% of which is captured by bitcoin.
This came after the new U.S. legislation — the Clarity and Genius Acts — and reports that President Donald Trump is okay with Americans being able to put bitcoin in their 401(k).
Joining this world-famous index will make Block more visible to big institutional investors, especially those who run index funds. Historically, companies added to the S&P, have seen a pop in stock price and trading volume.
The company’s $44.8 billion market cap, positive earnings, and public float over 10% met the S&P 500’s criteria. Analysts had been expecting this for months.
