On Monday afternoon, three-time NBA champion Andre Iguodala, a professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors, announced on Twitter that he would receive a portion of his $2.647 million annual salary in bitcoin (BTC). In addition, Iguodala added that he will give fans $1 million in BTC to increase the use of the digital currency. Payments have reportedly been facilitated using the Blocks (formerly Square) Cash app.
Iguodala joins a growing list of celebrities, athletes, influencers and government officials who are doing the same. At least seven players in the NFL currently prefer crypto to cash. Last year, Miami Mayor Francis Suarez and New York City Mayor Eric Adams said they would get their paycheck in BTC, Suarez went one step further by investing his 401(k) retirement savings in BTC.
Getting payroll in bitcoin or other cryptocurrency can benefit both employers and employees. First, companies with a large proportion of foreign employees do not need personal bank information for employees, nor do they have to make expensive and slow bank transfers to make payments. In addition, it will save employees from having to transfer their fiat money to cryptocurrency exchanges for investment, where they can easily exchange the received cryptocurrency for the currency they want. Volatility issues are also easy to deal with. Employees who are skeptical or pessimistic about the movement of coins in the short term can exchange cryptocurrency salaries for coins that are hoarded the moment they are received through a wallet or exchange.
