The large wallet service provider Exodus continues to pay its employees in Bitcoin (BTC), and this despite the ongoing bear market, the market capitalization of the leading cryptocurrency is now below the psychologically important mark of 1 bio. The US dollar has dropped.
Since the crypto company launched its proprietary software wallet in 2015, Exodus has been paying 100% of its workforce in BTC, as co-founder and managing director JP Richardson confirms to Cointelegraph.
Even during longer downtrends, the company has stuck to this strategy and has always paid all 300 employees in Bitcoin without exception. However, the respective salary payment is based on the converted salary in US dollars:
“For example: if the Bitcoin rate is at $ 30,000 and an employee earns $ 15,000 per month, then half a bitcoin will be transferred to him at the beginning of the month.“
In addition to converting the monthly salary into BTC, Exodus also pays employees an additional extra amount on each paycheck to at least somewhat hedge them against possible price fluctuations. “This strategy has helped us attract such employees who believe in the mission of crypto and DeFi, while, as it were, helping those who still have payment obligations in the form of fiat money,” Richardson explains.
According to this, Exodus employees are free to choose whether they want to convert their BTC back to US dollars or a stablecoin, because this is “a personal investment decision that is not influenced by Exodus,” the managing director continues.
This primarily raises questions for employees with regard to the taxation of their crypto salaries. In this regard, Richardson:
“The most common question from new employees is how crypto salaries affect their tax situation. For this reason, we offer free tax advice for everyone, so that you understand how to deal with your Bitcoin and how to tax it correctly.“
According to the CEO, one-third of Exodus’ workforce is located in the US, while the remaining two-thirds are spread across the rest of the world. On the company’s own website, the company therefore emphasizes that some countries have stricter regulations for dealing with Bitcoin than others, which is why employees should carefully check the applicable rules in their regions beforehand.
With the payment of salaries in the form of Bitcoin, Exodus wants to enable employees to “be at the forefront of the financial revolution”. Thus, they could not only save effectively on this way, but also the additional transparency that comes with the BTC payments could ensure more justice and trust within the company, because all salaries are visible on the blockchain network, including those of the management.
However, Richardson does not want to disclose whether and how hard this strategy was hit by the current crash in the crypto market. After all, the CEO states: “While we – as well as the rest of the market – have been hit by the current volatility, this only makes us stronger in our conviction that we want to be a central point of contact for the entire crypto community with our browser extension.“
The taxation of cryptocurrencies is also an important issue for German crypto investors, which is why the federal government has finally shed light on the tax law handling of Bitcoin, Ethereum & Co. with its final letter recently.
