Walsh Wealth Group is a crypto community, a hub and a meeting point for information. Their platform exists on Discord and members pay a subscription fee to be part of a conversation around crypto with John Walsh. 

John, or CryptoGodJohn, shares his thoughts about the present state of crypto as well as the trades in which he is currently investing. The forum is a space for the global community that John has built to converge and converse. 

Walsh Wealth Group has approximately twenty five moderators on payroll any given month. Five are domestic team members and twenty are international moderators who work as independent contractors. The company employs contractors spanning the globe from India to Norway to Pakistan and Spain.

Grace Blackler is the Director of Human Resources and Operations at Walsh Wealth Group. Her responsibilities encompass much of the company’s backend work and include payroll operations, onboarding, taxes and compliance, and legal and accounting.

The Challenge: Compliant payroll built for a crypto industry company

Prior to Rise, Grace onboarded Walsh Wealth Group’s payroll and compliance with a platform that issued payroll exclusively in fiat currency. Payments were issued in USD and contractors were paid by direct deposit in the fiat currency of their respective countries.  

Due to the complicated legal issues that can arise with crypto payments, especially internationally, Grace took great pains to ensure that their payroll ran zero risk of noncompliance: 

“Before we didn’t pay in crypto because we needed to keep everything on the books to show the accountant and to make sure we didn’t get in trouble with the IRS.”

While the platform through which Walsh Wealth Group processed payroll functioned temporarily, without prior warning, they asked Grace to provide them with all of the company’s bank statements. Grace learned that despite operations being completely legal and with zero suspicious activity, due to the fact that they are a company that provides information on crypto, their account had been flagged and was under investigation. 

This resulted in the complete suspension of payroll. On the day that all team members were expected to receive their direct deposits, not only was no one paid, but the system incorrectly stated that all payments had properly been issued. By the time that Grace was alerted to the fact that no one was paid, it was a Sunday morning.

Grace panicked to find a means of paying contractors as soon as possible while ensuring international compliance.

The Solution: Efficient onboarding and expanded payment options for increased flexibility. 

As Grace hurried to find an immediate solution to the immense challenge confronting her, Rise stood out as the singular viable option due to its rapid and efficient onboarding and its crypto-friendly infrastructure. 

Efficient Onboarding

It was critical for Grace to send out payments as soon as possible, and with Rise, that proved achievable. Grace contacted Rise Sunday morning, and by Sunday afternoon had completely set up Walsh Wealth Group’s account.

That Sunday, Grace onboarded all of Walsh Wealth Group’s payroll and compliance in the span of a couple hours. This was by far the fastest option available and allowed for team members to receive their overdue payments much sooner than Grace had expected. As Grace explains:

“It took a couple of hours to set up an entire new international payroll system that is completely legal, and completely by the books”

For everyone at Walsh Wealth Group, it was a major relief to both diagnose and solve their payroll challenges within the span of a few hours. 

Compliant Crypto Payouts 

For Walsh Wealth Group, which is dedicated to sharing knowledge about crypto, it was a sticking point to not be able to give their contractors the option to receive compensation in crypto. While in the past threat of legal repercussions had prevented crypto payments, with Rise, this issue was resolved.  

While for Grace, the hard-and-fast rule of fiat payouts was based in a fear of running into issues with the IRS, she explains what gave her total confidence in Rise:

“Someone on Rise’s compliance team used to work for the IRS. For US-based companies, with all of the crypto issues in every single bank, with Rise you will be ok legally and accounting-wise. Rise is crypto-friendly and doing it in a way that’s compliant and legal.” 

For Walsh Wealth Group, whose principal concern was compliance, the compliance layer that Rise provided allowed for them to adopt the crypto-friendly payroll they had always wanted.

Flexibility 

The flexible routing options that Rise offers allow for Walsh Wealth Group to fund their payroll in USD while giving contractors the option to receive payouts in crypto. Independent contractors can now choose from over 90 fiat currencies and 100 cryptocurrencies for their payouts. 

For Walsh Wealth Group’s diverse global teams, this has been an important perk. Grace describes its significance for them, as a crypto industry company:

“Now with Rise we have a lot more options and the team is very excited about it. Team members have the option to take their monthly payments out in crypto, as well as many different wallets to choose from.” 

In addition to crypto payouts, contractors were eager about the ability to withdraw payment to the wallet of their choice. They now have the flexibility to choose between direct deposit of fiat currency to a bank account, or crypto transfers to a wide range of digital wallets. 

The Outcome: Streamlined operations and competitive benefits for global talent.  

Through onboarding with Rise, Walsh Wealth Group was able to realize their ideal payroll. What had at first seemed impossible due to fears of noncompliance became a seamless and scalable reality. 

In addition, the speed at which Grace was able to onboard payroll and compliance was proof of the elevated efficiency that Rise’s systems provided Walsh Wealth Group’s payroll processes.

For all teams involved in Walsh Wealth Group’s operations, Rise has had a beneficial impact. In a hiring market where attracting talent mandates competitive benefits, flexible payment options are at the top of the list. Walsh Wealth Group can further enhance their employee attraction and retention with the heightened levels of satisfaction that the Rise payroll system has generated.

 In sum, as Grace explains:

“Rise has flexibility, it's the industry that we’re in, and the whole team is really excited.”