Bitcoin payroll startup Bitwage has just announced support for an additional 18 fiat currencies, including the Russian ruble.
The already three-year-old startup uses bitcoin to let employers route international payments to workers, enabling them to receive wages in either a local fiat currency or bitcoin or a combination of the two. The new additions increase support for the existing seven currencies to a total of 25.
In a statement, Bitwage's president, Jonathan Chester, said :
"With the recent interest in digital currencies over the last year, there has been tremendous growth in users who want to receive their wages in or through digital currency."
The new currencies added to the payroll service are: Swedish krona, Russian ruble, New Zealand dollar, Singapore dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Brazilian real, South African rand, Turkish lira, Saudi Arabian riyal, Israeli new sheqel, Mexican peso, Romanian leu, Polish zloty, Norwegian krone, Danish krone, Czech koruna, Hungarian forint and Philippine peso.
Bitwage is used as a payroll provider by organizations such as Google, Facebook, Airbnb, Uber, and others.
According to figures provided by Bitwage website, the service has transacted over $27 million to date and has over 15,000 registered workers worldwide.