Introducing Bankless Payroll
Jun 4, 2025
Schedule a 15 minute consultation with our team to learn more.
Today’s economy is more global and digital than ever before. More and more, businesses at the cutting edge of the global economy find themselves in a dilemma. While their products and services are innovative, their business operations are still in the dot-com era. Particularly in western economies, money moves slowly through many middlemen, and at high costs.
For companies building in the blockchain space, achieving operational efficiency has been a serious challenge. Operation Chokepoint 2.0, a coordinated abuse of regulatory power to debank the crypto industry, has now come to light. For years it was a quiet struggle from founders, CFOs, tax preparers, and other back office administrators trying to apply for bank accounts and keep them in good standing.
We have experienced these same issues. We started Franklin to help other companies operate onchain. Over the course of our ~3 years in operation, we have seen numerous customers get debanked. We knew we needed to do something to fix it.
Today, we’re proud to introduce Bankless Payroll as the solution.
Bankless Payroll is a step function improvement in the way that payroll is run at crypto companies. Businesses no longer need a checking account to make payday; all that’s needed is a crypto wallet. With Franklin’s Bankless Payroll, you can fund an entire payroll run in stablecoins, and it will be settled in your employees’ bank accounts in USD. And the local, state, and federal tax withholdings and payments? We take care of that by leveraging the power and programmability of stablecoins.
The Benefits of Bankless Payroll
1. Global Reach Without Friction
Traditional banking systems are a maze of cross-border restrictions, SWIFT fees, and exchange rate headaches. Bankless Payroll obliterates these barriers. Whether your team is in Berlin, Buenos Aires, or Bangalore, payments settle instantly and in a stable, widely-accepted digital currency.
2. Speed and Finality
Standard payroll cycles can take days or even weeks to settle — especially for international contractors. With stablecoin-based payments, funds settle in minutes, not days, and they’re final. No reversals, no holds.
3. Transparency and Trust
Every transaction on the blockchain is verifiable and timestamped. This brings an unprecedented level of transparency to the payroll process, making audits, compliance, and payment verification faster and more reliable.
4. Lower Fees, Higher Margins
Bank wires, intermediary fees, and currency conversion costs add up quickly. By eliminating these fees, companies can reinvest those savings into growth, compensation, and improved team tools.
5. Improved Access and Flexibility
A bankless system empowers contributors in underbanked or high-inflation regions. It also opens doors to flexible payment structures like streaming salaries, real-time bonuses, or project-based micro-compensation, all facilitated by non-custodial smart contracts.
Redefining Team Management
The shift to Bankless Payroll will do more than streamline payments—it will change the way teams are built and motivated.
Borderless Hiring becomes easy: With fewer payment hurdles, companies can access global talent pools effortlessly.
New Incentive Models emerge: Think milestone-triggered payouts, token-based rewards, or community governance tied to compensation.
Contractor and DAO Models thrive: Companies can scale teams fluidly and onboard contributors on-demand, without a lengthy process or banking requirements.
The Bottom Line
Bankless Payroll isn’t a futuristic concept—it’s a practical solution for modern teams. As more companies embrace remote work, decentralized teams, and global hiring, the demand for simpler, faster, and more inclusive payment systems will only grow.
Forward-thinking finance leaders should not view this as a risk, but as an opportunity to lead — to build more agile, resilient, and globally competitive teams.
The future of payroll doesn’t run through a bank. It runs onchain.
