How do you pay developers in crypto as an employer?

You have found the developer you want. The technical test went well, the terms are close, and then the candidate asks one more question: can you pay me in crypto? If your payroll has only ever run through a bank, the request raises practical worries about price swings, fees, records and tax. This guide explains how to pay contractors in crypto: why developers ask, which options you have, and what changes in your monthly routine.

Why developers ask to be paid in crypto

In crypto and web3 companies, which build their products on blockchains (shared public ledgers that record every transfer), the request is becoming more common. In 2024, 9.6% of more than 1,600 industry professionals were paid in crypto, up from 3% the year before.

The reasons are mostly practical. A developer who already holds crypto avoids a round trip: a bank transfer means paying fees to turn the money back into crypto. Others live in countries where the local currency loses value quickly and US dollars are hard to get. In 2025, 85% of contractors in Argentina on Deel, a payroll platform, preferred to be paid in US dollars. A stablecoin backed by dollars gives them that.

Some developers also work under a pseudonym, a stable online name that is not their legal name. Unlike an anonymous contributor, they keep the same name and its track record from one project to the next. Many are found on Discord, Reddit or GitHub rather than through a CV. For payment purposes, the address of their wallet, the app or device that holds the keys to their crypto, may be the only detail they give you at first.

How to pay contractors in crypto: your options

Stablecoin or volatile token

A stablecoin is a crypto token designed to keep a fixed value against an ordinary currency. USDC, issued by Circle, is redeemable one for one against US dollars. It is backed by cash and similar assets, and one of the Big Four accounting firms checks its reserves every month.

USDT, issued by Tether, plays the same role. Together they made up over 90% of crypto salaries in 2024: 63% for USDC and 28.6% for USDT. For euro payments, Circle also issues EURC, a stablecoin redeemable one for one against euros.

A volatile token is everything else: bitcoin, ether (the currency of the Ethereum blockchain), or your project's own token. Its price moves by the minute. Say you agree to pay a developer 2 ether a month. If ether loses a fifth of its value between the invoice and the payment, your developer has taken a pay cut nobody discussed. If it rises, you have paid more than you budgeted.

For regular pay, a stablecoin removes that price risk, which is why most crypto salaries use one. Project tokens usually come as a separate grant, released in stages over a set period, called a vesting schedule. That works more like equity than salary, and most vesting schedules ran over four years in 2024.

Three ways to send the money

The first option is to pay from a company wallet, one that belongs to the business rather than to a founder. Each payment then travels on a blockchain, which the industry also calls a network. Your company buys stablecoins on an exchange, a platform that swaps ordinary money for crypto, keeps them in that wallet, and sends each payment itself. It costs little beyond network fees, but you handle every check and every record yourself.

The second option is a payroll or payout platform that handles crypto. On Deel, contractors in supported countries can withdraw their earnings in USDC or USDT to their own wallet. In Mexico, these withdrawals carry a 2% service charge plus a $1 network fee. Deel also requires an identity check before any stablecoin payment, so a developer who works under a pseudonym will have to share their legal name with the platform.

Bitwage lets employers fund payroll with crypto and lets workers receive local currency or crypto. Rise offers a similar service, and Toku also handles token grants and deducts local tax from pay.

The third option is to split the pay. Part goes by bank transfer in the usual currency, the rest in stablecoins. Rise calls this Split Pay, and Bitwage lets workers receive part or all of their wages in crypto.

What changes in your monthly payments

Start with the exchange rate. Your invoices and books are probably in euros, pounds or dollars. USDC tracks the dollar, so a European company paying a euro invoice in USDC also takes on the euro-to-dollar rate. Name in the contract which rate applies and on which day.

Then come the fees. Every transfer carries a network fee, called gas on Ethereum. Gas fees are paid in ether, rise when the network is busy, and are due even if the transaction fails. Your wallet therefore needs a small balance of the network's own token on top of the stablecoins. Other networks have their own fee token.

The network and the address need the most care. The same stablecoin exists on many networks: USDC runs on 38 of them, and Tether lists more than a dozen for USDT. Your developer's wallet must be able to receive on the network you send on.

Sending to an unsupported network can mean losing the funds for good. And because a transaction sent on Ethereum is irreversible, there is no bank to call. Check every character of the address, not just the first and last few.

Each transfer gets a transaction hash, a unique reference number that serves as proof of payment. Paste it into a block explorer, a public search site for the blockchain such as Etherscan, and it shows the sender, the recipient, the amount, the date and the fee. Keep it with the invoice, and note the payment's value in your own currency on the day.

The cleanest set-up for invoices is to keep them in your usual currency and pay the equivalent in stablecoins at the agreed rate. Your accountant sees a normal invoice, and your developer receives crypto.

Crypto paid for work is taxed as income, for example in the United States and, for employees, in the United Kingdom. Before the first payment, ask an accountant who knows crypto how it works in your developer's country.

Mistakes to avoid

• Sending on the wrong network because the token name matched. The same token on two networks is not interchangeable.
• Paying from a founder's personal wallet or exchange account. Your books then mix company and personal money, and the payment is hard to prove.
• Running out of the fee token. A wallet full of stablecoins but empty of ether cannot send anything on Ethereum.
• Agreeing to pay "in crypto" without naming the token, the network, the rate and who pays the fees.
• Recording the amount in tokens only, without its value in your own currency on the payment day.
• Sharing the wallet's recovery phrase, the list of words that restores it, in a chat or a screenshot. Anyone who has it can empty the wallet.

Where to start

1. Ask your developer exactly what they want: which token, which network, which wallet, and whether it covers all their pay or part of it.
2. Decide between a stablecoin and a volatile token for regular pay, and handle any project tokens as a separate grant.
3. Decide between a company wallet and a payroll platform. Compare fees and country coverage on each provider's site.
4. Put the terms in the contract: invoice currency, token, network, wallet address, rate source and date, and who pays the fees.
5. Send a small test payment and wait for your developer to confirm it arrived.
6. For each payment, keep the transaction hash, the date, the amount and its value in your own currency.
7. Book a session with an accountant who knows crypto before the first full payment.

Hiring developers with Other--Side

Other--Side recruits for licensed operators, platforms and service providers in regulated markets across Europe. Technology is one of the roles we cover, alongside compliance, operations, product, finance and country leadership. We check every candidate against the regulatory reality of your market before you meet them, and we look at whether someone will stay before we look at whether they are free. If your next technical hire works in crypto, see how we recruit or start a conversation.