Financial technology company Brock announced major layoffs on February 26, 2026, affecting more than 4,000 employees. The move will reduce the company’s global workforce from 10,000 to fewer than 6,000 people, a 40% adjustment aimed at fundamentally transforming the operating model of the company, which owns Square and Cash App.
As detailed by Jack Dorsey in his annual letter to shareholders, the centerpiece of this restructuring is the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI) to manage tasks that previously required large human structures. co-founder of the company argues that this change is a necessary evolution for competitive survival.
Intelligence tools have changed what it means to build and run a business. A much smaller team can do more things and do them better. I don’t think we will reach this conclusion any time soon. I think most companies are lagging behind.
Jack Dorsey.
Financial markets reacted with notable optimism to the austerity announcement, with Brock stocks rising as much as 25% in after-hours trading. Industry analysts interpret this recovery as investor support for strategies that increase profit margins through automation, as the technology sector prioritizes efficiency over talent growth.
However, this movement can also be interpreted as follows: Adjustment after an aggressive hiring cycle over the past few years. The company attributed the job cuts to technological innovations, but market observers said the cuts were aimed at aligning its workforce with pre-pandemic expansion levels and seeking a more sustainable structure in the long term.
One of the biggest points of debate is the contrast between Brock’s financial strength and the scale of the layoffs. The company is not facing a revenue crisis. On the contrary, it reported annual gross profit of $10.36 billion in 2025.
In the last quarter, Cash App saw a 33% year-over-year increase in gross profit.Square rose 7%. The fact that a company with a 20% operating margin would make cuts of this magnitude highlights a paradigm shift in the fintech space. This makes it clear that profitability no longer guarantees the stability of a qualified job if it can be optimized through software.
new roadmap Blocks focus on four pillars. These are AI engines for customer self-service, rapid delivery interfaces, intelligence based on real-time data, and internal coordination.
For affected U.S. employees, Mr. Block has established a severance package. This includes 20 weeks of base salary plus one additional week of benefits for each year of seniority, six months of continued medical coverage, stock vesting through the end of May 2026, ownership of a corporate device, and a $5,000 bonus for career transition assistance. Dorsey said employees outside the U.S. will receive equivalent support consistent with local regulations.
However, the steps Dorsey announced are a strong sign that Bitcoin and the crypto sector are facing an AI-driven paradigm shift. This is because it has the potential to become a critical infrastructure for the new machine economy.
As reported by CriptoNoticias, a “flood” of AI agents is predicted, which will not only put jobs at risk, as seen in the block restructuring, but also use the rails of the decentralized network as the default financial system. By 2028, these agents are expected to turn to stablecoins on networks such as Solana and Ethereum’s Layer 2 for instant payments and minimal transaction costs that far exceed traditional banking.
(Tag translation) Bitcoin (BTC)
