And they were profitable in 2020 and 2021, what’s your point?

Companies lose money sometimes

Square is owned by Block Inc who is a publicly traded company. They made $190m net profit in Q1 2025

It almost certainly wasnt the card brands forcing the issue. They outsource that stuff to payment processors and other middle men because it’s cheaper and gives them some legal shielding if someone buys something illegal with their cards

That’s not quite true.

There are several layers between point of sale and the card brands and each layer is generally an independent company. Each of those companies makes or sells hardware and/or software that is used by the companies lower in the chain.

Square takes up several of these layers at once and charges much higher fees than other processors. The high fees and massive market coverage is why they exist, not because they’re chewing through VC funds still.