Overstock planning to pay employee bonuses in bitcoin

In an interview with Mashable, online retailer Overstock.com dropped a new bitcoin bombshell: The company is considering paying employee bonuses in BTC. Spokesman Judd Bagley told Mashable that the company is working out the logistics in advance of the end-of-year bonuses. The bitcoin-bonus program will be optional, although the bonuses will be higher than the cash equivalent.

Bagley also told Mashable that the company had recently passed $2 million in BTC-only sales. Overstock launched the bitcoin-payment option in January, and is one of the largest retailers to accept digital currency. Bitcoin purchases make up a tiny amount of Overstock’s sales volume — less than 0.25% — barely nudging the company’s reported $673 million in revenues in the first half of this year.

“We experienced an initial surge, there was a lot of excitement,” Bagley told Mashable. “It settled into something a little more predictable.”

Overstock has already grabbed its fair share of headlines this week, as CEO Patrick Byrne announced his company was exploring a digital stock offering and expanding its BTC-payment option globally.