Astar Network Expands into the U.S. with Toku’s Compliant Employment & Payroll Solutions

Astar Network (“Astar”) has become Japan’s leading smart contract platform and a flagship parachain in the Polkadot ecosystem. Known for its flexibility, Astar empowers developers to build applications that connect seamlessly with major blockchains such as Ethereum, Binance Smart Chain, Cosmos, and Polygon, making it one of the most interoperable platforms in Web3.

With a growing international developer ecosystem and a core team primarily based in Asia, Astar successfully launched its native token ($ASTR) in early 2022. Following this milestone, the company set its sights on scaling globally—particularly by establishing a stronger presence in the United States, where access to top-tier talent and strategic market opportunities were critical for the next phase of growth.

But expanding into the U.S. wasn’t without challenges. Unlike Asia, the American talent market operates under strict employment laws, complex tax rules, and high expectations for employee benefits. To compete for top talent, Astar needed to ensure its compensation packages—including fiat, stablecoins, and $ASTR tokens—were delivered legally, compliantly, and attractively.

That’s when Astar partnered with Toku, the first global solution purpose-built to manage token compensation, payroll, and compliance across multiple jurisdictions.

Working with U.S. Talent and Regulations

As Astar looked to expand into the United States, the leadership team quickly realized that hiring in the U.S. is vastly different from hiring in Asia. While independent contractor agreements were common and often sufficient in Asia, they fell short in the U.S. for one critical reason:

Top American talent expects the stability and benefits of full-time employment. 

Without offering these, Astar risked losing out on highly qualified engineers, product managers, and compliance professionals who could help accelerate the project’s global growth.

Key Challenges Astar Faced:

1. Employment Contracts & Benefits
   
   • U.S. workers generally require state-compliant full-time employment contracts.
   • Benefits such as healthcare, retirement plans, and social security contributions are not optional but expected. Contractors rarely receive these, putting Astar at a disadvantage in the talent market.
2. Tax Withholding & Reporting
   
   • Unlike in many jurisdictions where token payments operate in a legal gray area, the U.S. enforces strict tax rules.
   • Employers must accurately withhold federal income tax, state income tax, Social Security, and Medicare contributions — regardless of whether compensation is paid in fiat, stablecoins, or tokens like $ASTR.
3. Token Compensation Complexity
   
   • Paying employees in Astar’s native token ($ASTR) and stablecoins alongside fiat required a sell-to-cover mechanism to remit taxes in dollars.
   • This process was highly technical and error-prone if handled manually, creating compliance risk for both Astar and its employees.
4. Inadequate Market Solutions
   
   • Other Employer of Record (EOR) or payroll providers lacked the expertise to handle token grants and token payroll.
   • Many offered only fiat-based solutions, leaving Astar with partial coverage that didn’t reflect the crypto-native nature of its workforce.

Ultimately, Astar needed a partner who not only understood U.S. employment law and state-specific regulations but also had the technical infrastructure to handle multi-currency payroll involving tokens, stablecoins, and fiat.

That’s why the company chose to partner with Toku.

A Compliant and Easy Experience

By partnering with Toku, Astar gained access to a turnkey employment and payroll solution purpose-built for the unique needs of crypto organizations expanding into the U.S.

Toku stepped in as the compliance backbone, ensuring every aspect of hiring and compensating Astar’s U.S. employees was legally sound, tax-compliant, and seamless for both leadership and staff.

1. End-to-End Employment Compliance

Toku handled the entire process of bringing U.S. employees onto Astar’s team in a compliant way:

• Registering employees with the appropriate federal and state agencies.
• Drafting and maintaining state-compliant employment contracts.
• Managing onboarding documents, payroll setup, and ongoing HR administration.

This gave Astar’s U.S. team members the same legal protections and benefits as employees of any established American company.

2. Payroll Across Fiat, Stablecoins, and Tokens

One of Astar’s biggest concerns was ensuring that compensation in $ASTR tokens, stablecoins, and fiat could be paid out accurately and without compliance risk. Toku delivered by:

• Running payroll in multi-currency formats.
• Implementing sell-to-cover mechanisms to convert the necessary portion of tokens into fiat for tax obligations.
• Guaranteeing all withholding calculations for income tax, Social Security, and Medicare were executed properly.

Employees received clear, accurate payslips while Astar had peace of mind knowing its tax obligations were being met.

3. Access to Benefits Coverage

Toku gave Astar’s U.S. employees access to the full suite of benefits expected in the American market:

• Healthcare coverage compliant with the Affordable Care Act (ACA).
• Social security contributions and retirement planning.
• Additional state-specific benefits where required.

This meant Astar could attract and retain top-tier talent without being held back by compliance gaps.

4. Operational Efficiency

For leadership, the partnership with Toku translated directly into time and cost savings:

• More than 30 hours per month of operational admin were eliminated.
• The Finance team could remain lean, focusing on strategic growth instead of navigating U.S. payroll complexity.

As a result, Astar’s leadership had both the confidence that compliance was taken care of and the freedom to keep scaling globally.

Results & Impact

By partnering with Toku, Astar turned the challenge of U.S. expansion into a streamlined, compliant, and scalable process. The results were felt across the organization—from leadership and finance to employees on the ground.

1. Compliance & Risk Reduction

• Every aspect of U.S. hiring — from employment contracts to payroll tax filings — was managed in line with federal and state regulations.
• Complex compensation in $ASTR tokens, stablecoins, and fiat was administered without compliance gaps.
• With Toku handling tax withholdings and sell-to-cover obligations, Astar eliminated the risk of costly penalties or legal exposure.

2. Talent Attraction & Retention

• Astar could now compete for top-tier U.S. talent by offering full-time employment, healthcare, retirement contributions, and other benefits that contractors couldn’t access.
• Employees had greater confidence in their compensation packages, knowing taxes were handled correctly and that they had access to traditional benefits.
• This credibility strengthened Astar’s reputation as an employer of choice in the competitive Web3 space.

3. Time & Cost Savings

• Toku’s infrastructure saved Astar’s leadership and finance teams 30+ hours per month in manual administrative tasks.
• Instead of juggling multiple vendors and manual tax processes, everything ran through one unified partner.
• Astar was able to keep its Finance team lean, even as its global footprint expanded.

4. Scalable Global Expansion

• Beyond the U.S., Astar continued working with Toku to hire and compensate new team members across multiple jurisdictions.
• With a repeatable, compliant framework in place, Astar could confidently expand into new regions without restarting the legal and payroll learning curve.

Power Global Growth with Compliance

Astar’s expansion into the U.S. highlighted the challenges every Web3 organization faces when crossing borders — from complex tax rules to employee benefit expectations. By partnering with Toku, Astar was able to confidently hire in the U.S., compensate employees in tokens, stablecoins, and fiat, and ensure that every aspect of employment was fully compliant with local laws.

The result: a stronger U.S. presence, happier employees, and more than 30 hours saved each month in operational overhead. Most importantly, Astar can now focus on what matters most — building one of the most flexible and innovative smart contract platforms in the Polkadot ecosystem — while Toku takes care of compliance in the background.

👉 Ready to expand your Web3 team globally without the compliance headaches? Partner with Toku today and simplify token payroll, employment, and benefits anywhere in the world.