Zeros

Block Just Replaced Half Its Workforce With AI — And Wall Street Celebrated If you've been stacking sats through Cash App and watching the Lightning Network quietly revolutionize how we move Bitcoin around , you already know that Block , Inc. is no ordinary payments company. But what happened on February 26, 2026, is the kind of thing that makes you stop mid-scroll and read the headline twice. Jack Dorsey just laid off over 4,000 people — nearly half of Block's entire workforce — and the stock immediately surged more than 22% . Let that sink in. A company announced it was replacing its human staff with artificial intelligence tools, and investors responded by throwing a party. Block's stock, trading under the ticker XYZ , leapt from $54.53 to over $66 in after-hours trading. If the market's reaction feels surreal, that's because it is. What Even Is Fintech? For the uninitiated: fintech , short for financial technology , is exactly what it sounds li...