As leaders in cryptocurrency payroll & invoicing services, we at Bitwage are always striving to innovate and push the industry forward. For our customers in the US, we have always likened the ability to get paid in Bitcoin similar to having a percentage of your wage be deferred into a 401(k). About a year ago, we thought about whether it would be possible to trade Bitcoin inside of a tax-incentivized 401(k) retirement account. We found out that due to IRS official guidance on the tax treatment of Bitcoin in 2014 as property, there have been many companies already offering Bitcoin IRAs, but no one has created a Bitcoin 401(k) Plan.
After 10 months of testing the product with Bitwage as the first customer, we are happy to announce the launch our company sponsored Bitcoin 401k. What this means is that companies can offer employees the ability to invest traditional/pre-tax and roth/post-tax 401k dollars into Bitcoin. For those that do not know, a traditional 401k allows pre-tax dollar investments with deferrals on income taxes until withdrawal and a roth 401k allows post-tax dollar investments with no tax obligations on capital gains for qualified withdrawals.
This is made possible through a 4 way strategic collaboration between Bitwage, Leading Retirement Solutions, Kingdom Trust and Gemini. Leading Retirement Solutions provides the administration and recording keeping for the 401(k) program to ensure Department of Labor and IRS compliance, Kingdom Trust provides a secure and regulated custody solution, Gemini provides a secure and compliant exchange solution and Bitwage acts as a concierge for the company and employees to navigate between all four companies.
Bitwage Stock News
So how does it work? Bitwage will initially limit the number of clients that can sign up. As such, the first thing to do is reach out to support@bitwage.com or apply at https://www.bitwage.com/bitcoin401k to inquire about setting up a Bitcoin 401(k) Plan. Bitwage will help the company create a 401(k) Plan with Leading Retirement Solutions and employee custody accounts with Kingdom Trust. Once these accounts are created, your 401(k) Plan is ready to go and can be funded on your next pay period and with rollovers/transfer from old retirement accounts, including IRAs, 401k, 403b, pension plans, and more!
Bitwage Stock Symbol
The stock is up an impressive 375% in the past 12 months, and Goldman Sachs analyst John Mackay sees more upside in the cards. Mackay gives TRGP a Buy rating, along with a $49 price target. Bitwage has raised $811.30 k in total funding. View Bitwage stock / share price, financials, funding rounds, investors and more at Craft.
All funds will be converted on Gemini automatically for each pay period. Employees will be able to choose to buy and sell between USD and Bitcoin as they want. Additionally, Leading Retirement Solutions gives companies access to over 20,000 different assets, including traditional investments like mutual funds and ETFs, as well as non-traditional investments, including private and public stock, joint ventures, real estate, notes and more. This means that employees will have all the traditional investment options available to them and will be able to freely switch between Bitcoin investments and traditional investments.
Why would someone want to invest in Bitcoin over time instead of 1 lump sum? Taking a look at our bitcoin dollar cost average calculator, you can see that if you started getting a percentage of your paycheck in Bitcoin at the height of the 2017 bitcoin bubble, on May 19, 2020, you would have over a 30% ROI as of May 22, 2020.
Why should companies care today about the launch of the Bitcoin 401(k) Plan? The short answer is the Payroll Protection Program. Many companies affected by the coronavirus have recently received funds from the SBA PPP loan program. Businesses and entrepreneurs understand that 75% of those funds must be payroll expenses in order to receive 100% loan forgiveness. A problem that many of these companies are facing is that paying out 75% of the funds during the 8 weeks following the PPP loan deposit has many issues, such as delays in rehiring furloughed employees.
We are working with clients who want to use PPP proceeds to make contributions to a 401(k) Plan. It turns out that retirement benefits are included in the expenses that can be counted towards the 75% payroll expenses and they are not included in the $100,000 yearly salary cap per employee. This gives companies an opportunity to provide matching or profit sharing contributions to employee 401k accounts in order to help close the gap to receive full loan forgiveness. Together with the PPP program, the Bitwage Bitcoin 401(k) Plan allows employers to get more out of their PPP loans, while providing their employees new and innovative investment options.
This is just the beginning for the Bitcoin 401(k) Plan. Our vision includes integrating a trading engine directly inside of the 401(k) Plan so institutional as well as retail investors have access to the same exchange-grade trading tools inside of tax-incentivized retirement accounts. Future development also includes access to different kinds of digital assets as the crypto token asset class continues to grow in popularity.
Welcome to In Case You Missed It (ICYMI), a blazing fast block of hacked funds by your favorite Binance employee, Linzerd. Binance blocks funds related to Cryptopia’s hack and also launches a new fiat to crypto exchange. Kraken CEO advises against storing crypto on exchanges. Ford will use blockchain to fight child labor exploitation. Venezuelan stock market moves less than a half the volume of Localbitcoins, and Bitwage now allows paying W-2 employees in crypto.
More Spice: Bitcoin White Paper Webcomic by Comics Legend Scott McCloud
Binance Blocks Funds From Cryptopia
Just checked, we were able to freeze some of the funds. I don't understand why the hackers keep sending to Binance. Social media will be pretty fast to report it, and we will freeze it. It's a high risk maneuver for them. https://t.co/i0PeahLzic
— CZ Binance (@cz_binance) January 16, 2019
Popular cryptocurrency exchange Binance has blocked funds related to the hack of Cryptopia, a New Zealand based cryptocurrency exchange whose security was breached recently. Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, mused, “I don’t understand why the hackers keep sending to Binance.”
Binance Launches Fiat to Crypto Exchange
Binance has opened a new, independent exchange in a British dependency called Jersey. Binance Jersey users will be able to trade cryptocurrencies like bitcoin and ethereum against the British pound and the Euro. The exchange is still hiring personnel for various functions, and it is expected to employ more than 40 people from the island, focusing into British and European customers.
Kraken CEO Calls Against Storing Crypto In Exchanges
PLEASE do not store more coins on an exchange (including @krakenfx) than you need to actively trade. Use @LedgerHQ or @Trezor. DEXes are not a panacea — look at The DAO. Open source just means exploits will be discovered sooner (probably not by good guys). 🙏 https://t.co/LmzhtCjpM0
— Jesse Powell (@jespow) January 16, 2019
Jesse Powell, CEO of Kraken, an important American exchange, made a call for customers and general users to not store more cryptocurrencies on exchanges than they are effectively trading. It was likely a response to the Cryptopia exchange hack (see above). Jesse also called on customers to use hardware wallets like Trezor or Ledger.
Ford Will Use Blockchain Tech to Track Cobalt Origins
Ford will use a blockchain to track the origin of the cobalt used for manufacturing its cars, according to a note by Forbes. It is estimated more than 20% of the cobalt mined and needed for manufacturing is recovered by children. Ford has decided to partner up with local mining companies in the Democratic Republic of Congo, IBM, and others to ensure that the real origin of the cobalt will be recorded on a blockchain to have a registry of the supply chain and discourage illegal mining and exploitation.
Venezuelan Stock Market Moves Less Money Than Half of the Cryptocurrency Market
The Venezuelan stock market, battered and bruised by all the problems and sanctions the country has suffered (and keeps suffering), has shrunk significantly. It reports less than half of the movement than the cryptocurrency market makes in LocalBitcoins. This is a clear sign that shows cryptocurrencies have achieved an important status overtaking the traditional market of a country.
Bitwage Allows Paying Employees and Taxes with Bitcoin and Ethereum
Bitwage, a dedicated cryptocurrency payroll service provider, announced they are now able to pay W-2 employees and their payroll taxes in all 50 US states, plus Puerto Rico, funded in Bitcoin and Ether. This milestone had been planned long ago, but recently they partnered with Simply Efficient HR, a Texas-based company. Companies can pay their wages in crypto, and employees can choose which percentage to keep in crypto and which percentage to convert to dollars.
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