A Giant Japanese Internet Company is Set to Begin Paying Thousands of its Employees in Bitcoin

Cryptocurrencies continue to grow exponentially and become more mainstream with each passing day. More and more companies are accepting Bitcoin and other digital coins as a form of payment—but what about actually paying employees in Bitcoin?

A multi-billion dollar technology conglomerate in Japan has decided to do just this.

GMO Internet Group has announced that starting February 2018, they will give the option for employees to receive part of their salaries in Bitcoin. This means their 4,710 full-time employees will be able to get paid between 10,000 and 100,000 yen (about US$88 to US$881) in the form of Bitcoin each month. The amount will simply be deducted from their normal yen salary.

GMO has been increasingly involved in blockchain this year. In May, the company launched its very own cryptocurrency trading platform. Then, in September they announced plans to begin a Bitcoin mining business. They have invested $3 million to build a mining farm, which is set to begin actively mining Bitcoin in January 2018. And in October, GMO revealed that they plan to start selling mining boards using token sales.

In a recent announcement, the company said:

The GMO Internet Group will contribute to the development of virtual currencies in the world by promoting efforts related to virtual currency throughout the group.

GMO isn’t the first company to start paying employees in Bitcoin. Some blockchain-related companies have been doing it for years already.

So What is it Like to Get Paid in Bitcoin?

According to CoinDesk, Bitcoin earners handle their digital paychecks in different ways. Some cash out their cryptocurrencies immediately. “I hold a certain percent of my bitcoin and sell the rest. I try to do that on a regular basis,” said Lindsay Holland, assistant director of the Bitcoin Foundation.

Others keep their Bitcoin and use it as payment for everything from paying rent to shopping online to reimbursing friends for dinners out. “I try to stay within the bitcoin economy as much as possible,” Olaf Carlson-Wee, an employee at CoinBase, explained.

Now, GMO employees will soon be able to decide what they want to do with their own Bitcoin salaries. This is great news for the crypto community as a whole, as it shows that the adoption of cryptocurrency is increasing.

This move by GMO will further strengthen virtual currency and put it in the hands of even more people. By setting this example, we could see many other companies follow in GMO’s footsteps in the near future.