Thousands of Cash App referral text class members whose first payment never landed are getting a second chance: after a wave of failed Venmo, PayPal, and Zelle transfers and returned checks, the settlement administrator reprocessed every failed payment and mailed paper checks on April 1, 2026 — each worth $394.36.
What Is This About?
This is a payment update in Bottoms v. Block, Inc. (Case No. 2:23-cv-01969, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington), the class action over Cash App's "Invite Friends" referral texts. Plaintiffs alleged that Block, Inc. — Cash App's parent — assisted users in sending unsolicited commercial text messages to Washington residents without their clear, affirmative consent, in violation of Washington's Commercial Electronic Mail Act (CEMA) and Consumer Protection Act. Unsolicited marketing-text cases like this one are usually brought under the federal TCPA spam text law or, as here, a broader state statute like Washington's CEMA. Block denied wrongdoing and agreed to resolve the claims through a $12.5 million non-reversionary settlement fund.The claim window closed on October 27, 2025, and the court granted final approval on December 2, 2025. Payments to approved claimants began after that. The news here is the second round: a spring 2026 reprocessing and reissue program that the administrator ran to fix payments that failed the first time around. If your first payment bounced or your check never arrived, this is the round meant to make you whole.
Different Cash App matter? If you are looking for the separate $15 million Cash App data breach settlement (Salinas v. Block, Inc.), its payout-date update, or the automatic CFPB remediation checks from Epiq, those are different cases with their own timelines.
Why a Second Round Was Needed
The settlement was built around digital payments. The administrator, Eisner Advisory Group (EAG), worked with Digital Disbursements — a fintech platform owned by Western Alliance Bank — to let approved class members take their $394.36 through Venmo, PayPal, or Zelle, or by paper check. Digital payments are fast, but they are also fragile: they only work when a claimant's submitted email or phone number exactly matches an active, linked account.In practice, a large share of the first-round digital payments failed. Common reasons included claimants providing an email or phone number that did not match their active Venmo, PayPal, or Zelle handle; transfers sent to inactive or unlinked wallets that were automatically rejected; and incoming funds blocked by banks' automated anti-fraud systems. On top of that, some mailed checks were returned undeliverable after addresses changed over the multi-year case. The result was a high volume of payments that never reached the people owed.
The Reissue Timeline
To clear the backlog, EAG and Digital Disbursements ran a consolidated reprocessing program in spring 2026, using paper checks as the fallback to avoid repeat digital failures:- March 18, 2026 — Reissue request cutoff. Class members with a failed digital payment or an unreceived check had to report it to the administrator by this date.
- April 1, 2026 — Reprocessed checks mailed. The administrator audited and consolidated all outstanding balances — returned mail and failed electronic deposits alike — and mailed them as paper checks.
- About April 8, 2026 — Estimated delivery. The administrator anticipated the reissued checks would arrive by roughly this date.
If your reissued check has not arrived, you can check the status of your payment on the official settlement website. The claim window is closed, so the site is for tracking and reissue status, not for filing a new claim.
Why Payments Came In at $394.36
When the settlement was preliminarily approved, class counsel estimated individual payouts of roughly $88 to $147, based on an assumed claim rate of about 5% of eligible class members. The actual claim rate came in far lower. With fewer valid claims drawing on the same net fund, the final award rose to $394.36 per accepted claim — close to 79% of CEMA's $500 statutory baseline per text, an unusually strong per-person recovery for a consumer class action.The lower-than-expected participation reflects a familiar pattern in consumer class actions: even with digital outreach and instant-payment options, most eligible people never engage with the claims process. Tighter fraud screening on the administration side — now standard after a sharp rise in bot-submitted claims industry-wide — also filtered out illegitimate submissions, concentrating the fund among verified Washington claimants.
What Happens to Money That Is Still Unclaimed
The fund is non-reversionary, meaning leftover money does not go back to Block. Under the settlement agreement, if checks remain uncashed or undeliverable after the second-round paper-check campaign, the administrator evaluates the residual balance for a possible secondary pro-rata distribution to class members who already cashed their first checks — provided enough money remains to justify the cost. Anything left after that is directed to a court-approved cy pres recipient rather than returning to the company.How This Case Fit Into Block's Broader Year
The referral text settlement landed during a period of heavy regulatory scrutiny for Block. In January 2025, the company agreed to a $255 million resolution with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and state regulators over alleged gaps in banking-law compliance and consumer dispute handling, following a separate $40 million consent order with the New York State Department of Financial Services in April 2024. Block also resolved a roughly $15 million data breach class action tied to 2022–2023 security incidents. The $12.5 million CEMA settlement is the smallest of that group, but it stands out for what it established about platform liability: under Washington law, a company that pre-composes referral texts, wires them into a user's contacts, and pays users to send them can face liability for "assisting" those messages — it cannot simply point to the individual user who pressed send.Frequently Asked Questions
Why did the Cash App settlement send a second round of payments?
Many first-round digital payments through Venmo, PayPal, and Zelle failed because of account mismatches, inactive wallets, or anti-fraud blocks, and some mailed checks were returned. The administrator reprocessed all failed payments and returned checks and reissued them as paper checks, mailed April 1, 2026.
How much is each Cash App settlement payment?
The final award is $394.36 per accepted claim. That was higher than the pre-settlement estimate of $88 to $147 because fewer valid claims were filed than projected, concentrating the net fund among approved claimants.
When were the reissued second-round checks mailed?
Class members who reported a failed or unreceived payment had to submit a reissue request by March 18, 2026. The administrator mailed reprocessed paper checks on April 1, 2026, and estimated delivery by about April 8, 2026.
What if I still have not received my Cash App settlement check?
Check the status of your payment on the official settlement website at bottomstextsettlement.com. The claim window is closed; the page is for tracking and reissue status only, not for filing a new claim.
Is this the same as the Cash App data breach or CFPB settlement?
No. This is the Bottoms v. Block referral text settlement under Washington's CEMA law. The separate $15 million Cash App data breach settlement and the CFPB remediation checks from Epiq are different cases with their own distribution timelines.
Sources
- Bottoms v. Block, Inc., Case No. 2:23-cv-01969, U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington — final approval order (Dec. 2, 2025).
- Official settlement website — bottomstextsettlement.com (payment status and reissue information).
- Open Class Actions — $12.5M Cash App Referral Text Class Action Settlement.
Free settlement alerts
Get notified when new class actions open to claims
Join thousands of readers who get the latest class action settlements you may qualify for — delivered straight to your inbox.
