• Finder will begin paying its 350 staff part of their salary in Bitcoin if they want it.
• Co-founder Fred Schebesta said employees could accept up to 25% of their pay in Bitcoin, but did not confirm how many had taken up the business on the offer.
• It comes as Finder cites separate research claiming as many as one in four Australians would like exposure to the volatile asset as part of their compensation.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

Finder says it is Australia’s most visited comparison site, but there’s at least one measure on which it may be forging a path of its own.

Starting this month, its 350 employees are able to accept as much as a quarter of their pay check in Bitcoin, the volatile cryptocurrency the value of which routinely swings 20% or more at a time.

While it makes Finder among the first businesses in Australia to do so, it is a move that co-founder Fred Schebesta believes others will soon follow.

“We’re a crypto-friendly company, and some of our crew have been asking about this for a while now. We’ve been working to meet this demand over the past year with our legal and compliance teams,” Schebesta told Business Insider Australia.

“We’ve only just announced the program, but we’re expecting a fair bit of interest.”

While Finder wouldn’t confirm just how many on its payroll have taken them up on the offer, it said that at least one quarter have been trading cryptocurrencies on Finder’s new app.

“I see Bitcoin as a store of wealth. It’s a form of digital gold. While it is volatile, high risk can sometimes come with high reward,” Schebesta said. “We’re not encouraging our crew to take home part of their salary in bitcoin, and this is not financial advice. We’re providing this service by request from our crew.”

Schebesta is something of a true believer, hosting his own 60-second crypto show each day. But he believes the appetite extends far beyond him and his workforce, most of whom are under the age of 30. Finder claims its research shows almost one in four Australians want the same option.

In a survey of 1000 workers, 24% said they’d like to pocket part of their pay packet in Bitcoin, either because they believe its value will continue to increase or because of tax reasons.

“With more Australians looking for inflation hedges, yield-bearing assets and alternative investment opportunities, it’s not surprising that this many people are willing to be paid part of their salary in Bitcoin,” personal finance commentator Taylor Blackburn said.

“Like with any investment, there are risks involved with cryptocurrencies. But with high risk can come high reward.”

While that seems high, more than half said they were not interest at all, while more than 20% said they either didn’t trust it, need access to cash, or thought it was too volatile. In recent weeks, Bitcoin’s value has fallen from around $75,000 to below $50,000. Late last year, it was trading for less than half that.

Meanwhile, as long as there are extremely limited options to actually spend cryptocurrency directly, Australians still have an overwhelming need for fiat, or Australian dollars.

But nor is Finder the only business to offer the pay option to staff. Caroline Bowler, CEO of exchange BTC Markets, told Business Insider Australia its employees will be given similar options. For those working outside the crypto industry though, it remains an entirely foreign concept.

Blackburn emphasised that Australians still need to do their due diligence however to ensure they know what they’re getting into. But separate research from Finder shows many frankly don’t. More than one in two Australians incorrectly thinks Tesla founder Elon Musk created Bitcoin, while an alarming six in 10 think Bitcoin is not taxed.

With the ATO signalling this financial year it is absolutely targeting crypto investors, some may soon face a very large surprise tax bill.

Then again with house prices outpacing wages by a factor of 10, it may be the only shot some Australians get at a pay rise.

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