Is cryptocurrency wages an idea whose time has come? Maybe not. It is one thing, after all, to work in Bitcoin (BTC) with one cash surplus and quite another to take a significant portion of one’s salary in BTC.
Furthermore, there are often tax and guardianship questions about cryptocurrencies, as well as concerns about price volatility. There is also the issue that few actual items and services can currently be purchased with cryptocurrency.
It comes as no surprise, then, that apart from some famous athletes like Tom Brady, Aaron Rodgers and some mayors of major US cities, it seems that relatively few people outside the crypto space have embraced this next step in cryptocurrency adoption.
In this context, one has to evaluate NYDIG’s recent announcement of a “partnership” with the New York Yankees baseball team that will allow players and other employees to “transfer a portion of their salaries into bitcoin via the NYDIG platform.” Is this the start of something new, given that it comes on the heels of a harsh crypto winter? Or is it just another PR ploy, jumping on the bandwagon already established by professional football and basketball players in the United States?
Interestingly, NYDIG offered some hints that bitcoin salaries could in fact become a secular trend beyond recent major cases, especially among younger workers. According to her press release:
NYDIG research shows that 36% of employees under the age of 30 said they would be interested in dedicating part of their salary to bitcoin. Nearly 1 in 3 of these employees said that when choosing between two identical jobs at different employers, they would choose an employer that helps them get paid with bitcoin.”
NYDIG is not alone in identifying millennials and especially Gen Zers as prime candidates to take cryptocurrency salaries to the next level. In fact, a recent analysis by a global recruiter of more than 100,000 employees indicated that cryptocurrency wages are on the rise, especially among “borderless” remote workers, particularly those residing in some regions with high inflation or those with banking systems. shaky, like latin america.
Others, too, have suggested that an employee’s demand for a portion of an individual’s average wage in cryptocurrencies or stablecoins may be impervious to market fluctuations in the price of Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, although it sometimes seems hard to believe.
The younger generations are still keen on it
To that last point: In November, a survey by deVere Group reported that a third of Millennials and half of Generation Zers would be happy to receive 50% of their salary in Bitcoin and/or other cryptocurrencies. This survey was conducted when the cryptocurrency market prices were on the rise. Does the financial advisory group think the younger generations are still eager to get paid in crypto after a 50% drop in crypto prices since then?
“The younger generations are still eager to get paid in crypto because they grew up on technology. They are “digital natives” and are more comfortable using cryptocurrencies than the older generations, Nigel Green, CEO of DeVere Group, told Cointelegraph. They know that the future lies in technology and value the inherent value of digital and global currencies that are boundless, censorship-resistant, and inseparable.”
“Of our company, 90% + [employees] continue to hoard bitcoin regularly on a monthly basis,” said Danny Scott, CEO and co-founder of UK-based CoinCorner LTD, which has kept bitcoin on its balance sheet for several years and offers employees a salary option. BTC, he told Cointelegraph. “If anything, we have been receiving more inquiries over the past few months from companies looking to pay their employees in bitcoin.”
In June, an Ascent survey reported that “44% of Americans would consider receiving part of their salary in crypto, and 36% said they would consider receiving all of their salary in crypto.” However, this survey was conducted among 2,000 American adults on May 6, 2021 and May 25, 2022, when BTC was still close to $30,000. The price settled at around $23,000 on August 1, by comparison.
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Adam Bolton, CEO of Get Paid In Bitcoin – an Australia-based Bitcoin payroll solutions platform – challenged the notion that the #PaidinBitcoin phenomenon was completely resistant to the effects of market prices. “Although our work is designed to remove the speculative nature of Bitcoin, it continues to suffer from the emotional meltdown of rising and falling prices,” he told Cointelegraph, explaining:
“Our service is seeing an influx of new customers during bull markets and a decline in transactions during bear markets. It is an issue that we are still actively trying to address in the long term.”
Bolton added that people who stop and start the process of accumulating bitcoin are actually worse off by trying to time the market, “rather than the atmosphere of the day.”
