Deel, a Fintech that has been co-founded by Alex Bouaziz, has been expanding its business operations and focusing on UK-based firms.
Deel, a remote worker platform, has started taking digital currency payroll payments from firms, which it then provides to working professionals wherever they might reside.
This decision is the latest from the 3-year-old US-based software firm, which was last valued at $5.5 billion (as of last year) when it secured $425 million in venture capital funding.
Co-founder and CEO Alex Bouaziz, 28, noted that Deel is taking payments in USD coins from its corporate customers, which reportedly includes digital commerce platform Shopify. This is carried out via their integration with digital asset exchange Coinbase.
In statements shared with the Times, Bouaziz noted:
“As a client, they will be able to pay Deel a million-plus in payroll in cryptocurrency — we already have customers using it. The next thing they want to be able to do is pay employees.”
Cryptocurrencies are definitely going mainstream. Most financial industry experts agree that virtual currencies are going to be a key part of the future of finance. Recently, Russia recognized Bitcoin as a type of currency, which was surprising because the country had been looking to ban BTC transactions along with transfers made with other cryptos.
Robo-advisors like Betterment recently announced support for crypto. Meanwhile, Silicon Valley Fintechs such as Brex have also introduced crypto-related products. The market cap of digital currencies currently stands at around $2 trillion. Even large auditing firms such as KPMG Canada have added Bitcoin and Ethereum to their corporate balance sheets.
Asset managers have also been advising clients to allocate a certain portion of their investment portfolios to crypto-assets because they are a legitimate new asset class. Cryptocurrencies should become a part of the everyday lives of individuals and business organizations in the coming years.