YouTube introduces stablecoin payment option for U.S. creators

Doohyun Hwang

Summary

YouTube has introduced a PayPal stablecoin (PYUSD) earnings payment option for creators in the United States.
The decision is said to coincide with a trend of increasing interest in stablecoins across big tech and a partial alleviation of regulatory uncertainty.
PayPal is expanding PYUSD into various payments and ecosystems, and PYUSD's market capitalization is about $4 billion.

YouTube has introduced an option to pay U.S. creators in PayPal's stablecoin (PYUSD).

May Zabaneh, head of PayPal's digital assets (cryptocurrency) division, said in an interview with Fortune on the 11th (local time) that "the feature allowing YouTube creators to receive earnings in PYUSD has already been launched, and it currently applies only to U.S. users." Google also confirmed that YouTube added a PYUSD payment option, but declined to comment on the details.

YouTube has previously used PayPal's large-scale payout services to pay creators and contractors. PayPal added earlier this year in early Q3 a feature that allows payout recipients to receive funds in PYUSD instead of cash, and YouTube later adopted it as a creator payout option. Zabaneh said, "It's a structure where PayPal absorbs the complexity so YouTube doesn't have to handle digital assets directly."

This decision aligns with a broader trend of increasing interest in stablecoins across big tech. Stablecoins are digital assets pegged to fiat currencies like the dollar, which tout faster payments and lower costs compared with existing financial infrastructure. In particular, after President Donald Trump passed stablecoin regulatory legislation, alleviating some regulatory uncertainty, discussions about adoption have been spreading, centered on Silicon Valley. Stripe entered the stablecoin market in earnest earlier this year by acquiring stablecoin startup 'Bridge' for $1.1 billion.

PayPal is a company that adopted digital assets relatively early among big tech. It has supported trading of major digital assets such as Bitcoin and Ethereum since 2020, and in 2023 launched its own stablecoin PYUSD. PYUSD's market capitalization currently stands at about $4 billion.

PayPal is expanding PYUSD across its ecosystem. Users can hold and send PYUSD in PayPal and Venmo wallets, and it can be used for merchant payments. Recently it also unveiled a way for small businesses to pay vendors in PYUSD.

PYUSD