Big news from Japan - from March 2018, the more than 4,000 employees of GMO Internet will be able to receive part of their salaries in Bitcoin , according to a tweet from Bloomberg reporter Yuji Nakamura.
Tokyo-based GMO Internet is a group which offers online advertising, internet infrastructure, internet security and mobile entertainment. Its brokerage arm GMO Click Securities has been the world’s largest FX provider by trading volume since 2012.
The giant company was relatively quick to get into cryptocurrency, announcing the establishment of a cryptocurrency exchange, GMO Wallet, at the beginning of 2017.
It launched a blockchain development service for customers in July, and a Bitcoin mining operation in September.
At the time, the company said: “We believe that Cryptocurrencies will develop into ‘new universal currencies’ available for use by anyone from any country or region to freely exchange ‘value,’ creating a ‘new borderless economic zone."
Japan as a whole has also welcomed cryptocurrency with open arms. The government has granted licenses to fifteen Bitcoin exchanges, and the Tokyo financial exchange is planning to launch Bitcoin futures, à la CBOE.
In keeping with this national enthusiasm for digital money, the company stated in a press release today: "GMO Internet Group has decided to introduce a system that allows part of the salary's payment to be received by Bitcoin in order to promote ownership of the [employees'] virtual currency."
Needless to say, such a massive company deciding to pay employees in Bitcoin is a major step for digital money.
