• The Global Recruitment Report by Deel Lab found that 64% of LATAM workers prefer to get paid in crypto.
• Workers are choosing crypto pay due to phenomena such as inflation and the depreciation of local fiats.
• Bitcoin (BTC) is the preferred token, followed by USD coin (USDC) and Ethereum (ETH).
Increase in Number of LATAM Workers Choosing Crypto Pay
More Latin American (LATAM) workers than ever are choosing to get paid in crypto, a new report has found – with suggestions that crypto winter has done little to dampen adoption in the region. According to the Deel Lab for Global Employment’s Global Recruitment Report, between January and December 2022, the number of remote workers choosing to get paid in crypto rose from 61% to 64%.
Reasons Behind Increased Adoption
Natalia Jiménez, the regional manager for Spanish-speaking Latin America at Deel, told Bloomberg Linea that „phenomena such as inflation“ and „the depreciation of local fiats“ was driving crypto pay adoption. She added that workers wanted to „diversify their income and take care of their savings,“ leading them toward crypto rather than fiat. Last month, the CEO of Bitwage also reported a 250% increase in Argentinians opting for companies that pay them in crypto instead of fiat over the past year.
Preference Among Tokens
The report’s authors noted that Latin American workers‘ preferred token was bitcoin (BTC), with 64% preferring this option over other alternatives like USD coin (USDC) or Ethereum (ETH). Only 7% chose ethereum (ETH), with the remainder stating they preferred altcoins.
Impact on Inflation
On Jan 26th it was measured Colombia’s inflation rate at 23%/yr – which is almost double DANE’s official rate released by Colombia’s national statistical agency – while Argentina had an annual inflation rate of 98.8%. This suggests that a high level of inflation is present among these countries, thus pushing people towards more stable payment options like cryptocurrencies.
Conclusion
Overall, it appears that LATAM workers are seeing an increasing benefit from being paid in cryptocurrency due to its stability compared to volatile local currencies caused by high levels of inflation. With BTC still being chosen as the most popular option for payments, other tokens like USDC and ETH have also seen increased usage throughout 2021 so far.