On Monday afternoon, Andre Iguodala, a three-time NBA champion and professional basketball player for the Golden State Warriors, announced via Twitter that he would take a portion of his annual salary, estimated at $ 2.647 billion, in Bitcoin ( BTC). In addition, Iguodala added that it will distribute a million dollars in BTC to fans to increase the adoption of the digital currency. Payments are said to be facilitated by Block’s Cash App (formerly Square).
I’m excited to announce I’m taking part of my salary in BITCOIN w. Cash App! Bitcoin is the future, @klaythompson and I are both believers. To make bitcoin more accessible, we’re giving out $ 1M in bitcoin back to fans today. Drop your $ cashtag w. #PaidInBitcoin & follow @CashApp
– andre (@andre) January 10, 2022
Iguodala joins the growing list of celebrities, athletes, influencers, and government officials who are doing the same. At least seven NFL players are currently choosing crypto over cash wages. Last year, Miami Mayor Francis Suárez and now New York City Mayor Eric Adams said they would take their paychecks in BTC, with Suarez taking it up a notch by investing in BTC with his 401 (k) retirement savings as well.
Collecting salary in BTC or other cryptocurrencies could benefit both employers and employees. For starters, companies with large percentages of international workers would not need the private banking information of their staff, nor would they have to make costly and time-consuming wire transfers to make payments. Additionally, it saves employees the hassle of moving their trust funds to cryptocurrency exchanges for investment, as they can easily exchange the digital currencies they receive for whatever they want. Volatility problems are also easily solved. Employees who are skeptical or bearish about short-term currency movements can simply change their paycheck from crypto to stablecoins the instant they receive them through a wallet or exchange.