Coinbase has announced the arrival of a feature for users in the US that will give them the ability to deposit their salary into their managed account on the platform.
The “Get paid in crypto” feature was designed to address the continued growth in popularity of digital assets and to respond to feedback from users who complained that it was time-consuming to manually transfer funds from their bank account to their account.
Salary on Coinbase: crypto become more accessible
With the implementation of this new financial tool, Coinbase wants to make entry into the crypto-economy more accessible to everyone, saving time on the additional steps needed to move money and convert it into digital currency.
Users can choose to be paid in full or in part with cryptocurrencies available on the platform and with the US dollar, so they can more easily trade crypto and make purchases with Coinbase Card with the opportunity to earn rewards.
The Coinbase Card is a Visa debit card provided by Marqeta that converts crypto assets into USD with a 2.49% transaction fee every time a purchase is made.
The direct deposit of the salary, should the customer choose to be paid in crypto, is free of charge and has no transaction fees but a spread applies when buying, selling or exchanging cryptocurrencies.
In reference to this initiative, Max Branzburg, VP Product at Coinbase, said:
“With direct deposit, customers can more easily access our crypto-first financial services and be ready for any trade or purchase. We’re determined to deliver the most trusted full suite of crypto-first financial services to our 68 million users”.
Coinbase is thus aligning itself with other companies in the fintech world that already provide the ability to transfer a portion of one’s salary directly to accounts, such as Chime, PayPal and Robinhood.
Pros and cons of crypto salaries
We covered the topic of the salary revolution in a previous article, analyzing the difficulties and advantages of this new method of remuneration and describing the constant challenge between the financial products and services offered by fintech companies and those provided by traditional banks.
While on the one hand, we have increasingly easy and cheap, in some cases free, access to crypto assets with low commissions and unparalleled speed of execution of transactions, on the other hand, we cannot fail to consider the risk linked to the volatility of cryptocurrencies and the lack of precise regulations that protect consumers.
An inexperienced and market-savvy employee who, out of curiosity or to diversify his investments, requests his entire salary from his company in cryptocurrencies could see his work remuneration reduced due to a collapse in the value of the digital currency.
The direct deposit and cryptocurrency conversion function of salary, which is integrated into various platforms and apps of fintech companies, may be of great use to transnational companies that would have to pay employees in countries with different fiat currencies by adopting classic centralized channels with high fees and slow execution times.
They could also positively exploit this possibility by accepting part of their payroll in BTC, thus halving the time and costs to implement their investment strategies.
