Japanese company to start paying its employees in Bitcoin

If you thought we’d seen the last of Bitcoin mania, think again – a Japanese company has announced it is to pay employees part of their wages in the cryptocurrency.

The company, GMO Internet, is a web business dealing in finance and online advertising, and will offer employees the option to receive part of their wages in Bitcoin.

From February next year, employees will be able to opt to receive up to 100,000 yen (£660) of their salary in Bitcoin every month.

Company spokeswoman Harumi Ishii said, ‘Employees can receive salaries by Bitcoin if they want to. We hope to improve our own literacy of virtual currency by actually using it.’

The offer will be open to 4,000 employees in Japan, the Guardian reports.

The company started a Bitcoin trading and exchange business earlier this year.

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The value of Bitcoin has rocketed almost 50% since September, and has risen tenfold in value this year – sometimes shooting up hundreds of points in a day.

If you had bought £1,000 of Bitcoin in 2012, your coins would now be worth £909,000.

Most people who buy it are no longer aiming to use it, but hoping it’ll be an investment, according to experts.

Many investors and central banks have warned that the price of Bitcoin will collapse – but fans such as security software pioneer John McAfee have claimed coins will be worth $1m each by 2020.