Bitwage Joins Paystand: Building the Future of Global Payments

Why We Started Bitwage

Bitwage was founded in 2014 by my co-founder John Lindsay and me, Jonathan Chester, out of a shared belief that Bitcoin could transform how people around the world get paid. At the time, I was working at Oracle, where I became fascinated by Bitcoin's potential to provide financial services to the unbanked and create a faster, more efficient global payments system. My cofounder, a software engineer with similar curiosity about emerging technologies, joined me in searching for a practical use case where crypto could have real-world impact.

We recognized a painful problem faced by millions of freelancers and remote workers globally: cross-border payments were slow, expensive, and unreliable. A freelancer in Argentina, for example, could wait nearly a week to receive payment while losing up to 40% of their earnings to fees and poor exchange rates. This broken system highlighted the gap between how money moved domestically versus internationally. Bitwage emerged as a solution to empower workers by letting them receive all or a portion of their wages in local currencies, Bitcoin or stablecoins, bypassing traditional intermediaries, reducing costs, and cutting payment times from days to hours.

From its inception, Bitwage was built on a simple but powerful idea: make cross-border payments faster, cheaper, and more flexible for the modern global workforce. What started as a niche project for crypto enthusiasts quickly became a vital tool for freelancers, remote employees, and companies hiring internationally. By leveraging blockchain technology, Bitwage not only streamlined payments but also gave workers control over how they got paid, whether in local currency, digital dollars, or Bitcoin, helping them protect against inflation and currency instability.

Today, Bitwage continues to embody the original mission that inspired us: financial empowerment through innovation. By bridging the gap between traditional payroll systems and the digital economy, Bitwage has helped tens of thousands of workers worldwide gain faster access to their earnings, save money, and participate more fully in the global economy.

The Bitwage Journey

2014 – Bitwage launches its first suite of products:

  • Bitcoin Payroll for Companies
  • Crypto-powered international virtual accounts for Freelancers

2015 – Bitwage launches blockchain-powered cross-border payments via Bitcoin on key corridors:

  • USD to PHP (Philippines)
  • USD to BRL (Brazil)
  • Joins Plug & Play Accelerator, the first fintech accelerator in Silicon Valley
  • Closes $800K pre-seed round led by Draper Associates

2020 – Bitwage processes $100M in blockchain-powered cross-border payroll and freelancer payments

2021 – Closes $3M seed round led by Draper Associates, with participation from Stellar Development Foundation and Gaingels

2024 – Bitwage turns 10 years old and grows 400% from 2020, processing $400M across nearly 200 countries

2025 – Bitwage Acquisition Announcement

We're Joining Paystand

We're excited to announce that as of November 3, 2025, Bitwage has been acquired by Paystand Group.

About Paystand: The Perfect Partner

Paystand is building the next generation of business payments. Founded in 2013 by Jeremy Almond and Scott Campbell, Paystand has been a fintech pioneer from day one, launching in 2014 as the first business payment processor to bridge traditional payment rails with innovative digital payment technology. Today, Paystand's core B2B payment network is processing over $20 billion in payment volume, making it one of the largest at-scale commercial payment platforms in the world.

As a business payment network for the digital era, Paystand is focused on achieving "the journey to zero": zero touch, zero time, zero fees. Their core product is an Accounts Receivable solution designed to automate payments and accounting for enterprise and mid-market US businesses while dramatically reducing payment costs through their subscription-based, fee-free model. Unlike traditional payment processors that monetize every transaction by taking a cut of revenue, Paystand provides subscription-based pricing with no fees on bank payments, allowing businesses to retain more of their earnings.

Paystand's growth has been remarkable. The company is growing 47% year-over-year with 1,000 enterprise clients and over 1 million businesses transacting on their payment network, representing one of the largest B2B receivables, payables, and payments networks in operation. Their payment ecosystem now spans North America and Latin America, processing billions in annual volume.

With the Bitwage acquisition, we will become the central hub for money movement within Paystand, powering their global accounts payable solutions and driving their digital payment strategy forward. Paystand's customer base of over 1,000 enterprise clients and their expanded payment network spanning 1 million+ businesses will supercharge Bitwage's growth and extend our reach far beyond what we could achieve independently.

How We Got Here

I've personally known Paystand CEO Jeremy Almond for almost 10 years, meeting him at a Bitcoin event hosted by the Plug and Play accelerator in Silicon Valley. Jeremy launched Paystand in 2013, and we founded Bitwage the following year, both driven by the same conviction that blockchain technology could create a more open, efficient financial system.

Over the years, Paystand became a customer, using Bitwage's infrastructure for their own global payment needs. I joined Jeremy on a podcast over a year ago to discuss Bitcoin payroll, and we reconnected afterward to discuss potential synergies between our platforms. The conversation revealed natural complementarity: Paystand had built the largest blockchain-based B2B payment network serving enterprise accounts receivable and payable, while Bitwage had pioneered crypto payroll and cross-border payments for workers and freelancers. Those discussions eventually led to early acquisition conversations in 2024.

In early 2025, things went quiet on Paystand's side as both companies focused on their respective growth trajectories. During this time, we entertained several funding and acquisition options after engaging an investment bank and participating in Stanford's StartX accelerator. After careful consideration and passing on those deals, we restarted conversations with Paystand. The strategic fit became increasingly clear: together, we could build something far more powerful than either company could achieve alone. We could create a complete global payment infrastructure spanning consumer-to-business, business-to-business, and business-to-worker flows, all powered by blockchain and stablecoin rails.

What's Next for Bitwage

While we're best known as pioneers in blockchain-powered cross-border payments and crypto payroll, we've built something much bigger: a proprietary stablecoin-enabled global B2B payout engine that processes $500 million in payments across nearly 200 countries. This infrastructure combines regulatory resilience, API-first design, and deep expertise in stablecoin execution, with support for USDC, USDT, BTC, and local currencies worldwide.

This acquisition positions Bitwage to extend our impact far beyond wages. Our combined capabilities will power enterprise-scale B2B and treasury operations, giving companies the tools to automate global liquidity, supplier payouts, and cross-border settlements, all using transparent, programmable, fully reserved stablecoins. By integrating Bitwage's global payout infrastructure with Paystand's domestic B2B payment network, we're creating an end-to-end solution that seamlessly handles everything from enterprise accounts receivable in the US to international contractor payments in 200 countries.

Together, Paystand and Bitwage will serve a complete spectrum of payment needs:

  • Domestic B2B Payments: Paystand's zero-fee network for US accounts receivable and payable
  • Cross-Border B2B: Bitwage's stablecoin-powered infrastructure for international supplier payments
  • Global Payroll: Cryptocurrency and stablecoin payroll solutions for distributed teams
  • Freelancer & Vendor Payments: Fast, flexible payment options for the global gig economy
  • Treasury Operations: Enterprise-grade tools for managing global liquidity
  • Global Stablecoin On & Offramps: API-driven local currency to local currency or stablecoin liquidity globally.

The combined entity, which processes over $20 billion, will create the most comprehensive blockchain-enabled business payment infrastructure in the world.

A Shared Vision

Both Paystand and Bitwage were founded on the conviction that financial infrastructure should be open, efficient, and fair. Jeremy Almond started Paystand with a mission to "reboot commercial finance" using blockchain technology, while we founded Bitwage to give workers control over their earnings in the face of expensive, slow cross-border payment systems. Now, with over $100 million in combined funding from investors including Draper Associates, Battery Ventures, DNX Ventures, Stellar Development Foundation, and others, we have the resources and scale to deliver on that shared vision at a global level.

The timing couldn't be better. With over $20 billion being processed through Paystand's blockchain infrastructure, 1 million+ businesses in the network, and Bitwage's proven track record of serving B2B crossborder payments across nearly 200 countries, we're positioned to lead the industry into the next era of financial services. This is an era where blockchain and stablecoins enable instant, transparent, programmable payments for businesses and workers worldwide.

This is just the beginning. Together, we're building the infrastructure that will power the future of global commerce.

Thank you,

Jonathan Chester, Bitwage CEO & Founder