SAN FRANCISCO–As it seeks to establish itself as a mainstream gateway to the world of cryptocurrency—including as a place to routinely deposit paychecks, expense reimbursements and tax refunds–Coinbase said it has now launched a direct deposit program in conjunction with TurboTax to that would send state and federal tax refunds to Coinbase accounts.
“We’ve seen a rise in alternative investments, in a new class of investors beyond just high-income earners,” Randy Hellman of TurboTax’s investor segment, told the New York Times.
According to the Times’ analysis, Coinbase views itself an “on-ramp” to the crypto economy. It wants to make things easy for people by offering direct deposits of all kinds, the company’s head of product, Prakash Hariramani, told the publication.
Coinbase just finished the U.S. rollout of a paycheck program, with New York City mayor Eric Adams naming the company in a statement
Education is ‘Critical’
on converting his first mayoral income from dollars to crypto.
Coinbase also lets people direct corporate expense reimbursements to their crypto accounts.
However, the Times added, “holding Dogecoin isn’t the same as having a dollar. Given crypto’s high volatility, even enthusiastic early adopters of these sorts of services are proceeding with caution.”
“The education piece is really critical,” Sally Shin, who leads strategy at the music distributor United Masters, which is working through the initial phases of a partnership with Coinbase to design a crypto payment program for employees and artists, told the Times.
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