Block's Cash App security settlement pays about $139 a claim to roughly 6% of filers

About 6% of filers got through ^[15]. Awards cover documented harm: out-of-pocket losses fairly traceable to the incidents up to $2,500, up to three hours of lost time at $25 an hour, and unreimbursed transaction losses ^[9]. The $2,500 is a ceiling on eligible expenses. Each award depends on approved paperwork, the number of valid claims and the money left after deductions ^[10]. Divide the roughly $5.6 million in approved claims by 40,380 and the mean comes to $138.68 ^[16], close to the roughly $139 average Crowdfund Insider reported before final adjustments ^[8].

That $5.6 million is about 37% of the $15 million fund ^[17]. The other $9.4 million or so ^[18] has to cover administrative costs, attorney fees and other deductions ^[10]. Crowdfund Insider did not report the fee award, the administration bill, or where any leftover money goes.

Block's price for this case, or rather for this one of its several Cash App cases ^[14], is the $15 million fund ^[10]. The value reaching approved users is about $5.6 million so far, sent by check, prepaid card, Venmo or Zelle ^[11]. It arrives about 19 months after final approval ^[20] and some four and a half years after the first incident was disclosed ^[22].

The per-claim figure can still move. If deductions come in light and leftover money goes to approved claimants, the average climbs above $139; heavy deductions push it down. The "so far" in the valuation leaves a third path, in which claims still being priced lift the $5.6 million total ^[8].

Next to Block's other Cash App matters, the class fund is the small one. A separate CFPB enforcement order involves up to $120 million in consumer redress ^[12], eight times this fund ^[19]. A multistate settlement with attorneys general is worth $45 million and creates no direct consumer fund ^[13]. Of the as much as $180 million across the three, the class settlement is about 8% ^[21].

In our view the class action has put a modest price on the 2022 and 2023 incidents, and the larger sums in Block's Cash App record come from the government cases. The case against that view is that Crowdfund Insider describes the CFPB and state matters as distinct from this settlement ^[14], so they may cover different conduct. On that reading, $180 million is Block's whole Cash App bill, and the incidents' share of it is unknown. We would also be wrong on the user side if final distributions lift approved claims well past $5.6 million.