company GMO Internet will start offering employees a portion of thеir salaries in Bitcoin, as of February 2018. The company, a holding of businesses that employs over 4,000 people total, will give employees the option to receive up to 100,000 yen ($890) monthly in BTC.
According to The Guardian, a spokesperson for GMO, Harumi Ishii, says the company is exploring the applications and capabilities of Bitcoin. In paying employees in Bitcoin, they hope to get a better understanding of how the virtual currency can be used in real-world scenarios:
“Employees can receive salaries by Bitcoin if they want to. We hope to improve our own literacy of virtual currency by actually using it.”
According to their site, the company has shown interest in the Blockchain and cryptocurrency space prior to their decision to pay employees in BTC. Having successfully launched a Bitcoin exchange earlier this year, GMO is looking to dive into the deep end of the cryptocurrency world and will start a mining operation in 2018 as well.