By
Bhushan Akolkar
April 19th, 2024
With the latest offerings, remote workers can now receive wages from their employers, and employers can fund payrolls in any of the new 18 currencies.
Bitwage, a bitcoin payroll and international wage payment platform, has expanded its operations with addition of 18 new fiat currencies. This brings the total list of currencies available on the platform to 26.
The new currencies that have been added to the platform include Russian Ruble, Mexican Peso, Brazilian Real, South African Rand, Turkish Lira, New Zealand Dollar, Romanian Leu, Saudi Arabian Riyal, Israeli New Sheqel, Swedish Krona, Polish Zloty, Norwegian Krone, Danish Krone, Czech Koruna, Philippine Peso, Hungarian Forint, Singapore Dollar, and Hong Kong Dollar.
According to Bitwage co-founder, Jonathan Chester, the company noticed a growing interest in cryptocurrency in the past year and the number of users wishing to get paid in virtual currency has significantly increased as well.
“Some users understand the potential for faster and cheaper cross border wage payments, while others are just looking to speculate. Now, we have unlocked the potential for this growing base of users to receive their wages from 18 new currencies,” he said.
Bitwage, which is headquartered both in France and the US, was founded in 2013 by John Lindsay and Jonathan Chester to enable workers receive salary in digital currencies, commodities, or fiat currencies. Initially, it worked as a bitcoin payroll service for employers, but in November 2014 expanded to employees and freelancers.
In addition to minimizing costs, the platform helps workers and employers to experience faster process of international payments. Bitwage is also great option for the unbanked population as it doesn’t require users to have a bank account.
Over the last three years, the startup has processed more than $30 million and gained over 18,000 users globally. Among its users are employees from AirBnB, Facebook, Uber, Google, the World Health Organization, and the United Nations.
The startup is currently focused on expanding its services in Europe and other international markets. Earlier this year, Bitwage launched the platform in the UK, allowing remote workers get paid by companies located in the country.
A few months ago, it also launched unique European Union (EU) IBAN numbers to let workers around the world get payments from EU employers. The feature helped to automate the company’s EU services and accelerate delivery of wages to workers in European countries.
“For workers in the UK, this now means you are able to have more diversity in how you would like to receive your wages. You can split your wages at any percentage between many different bank accounts and digital wallets,” the startup said at the time.