YouTube Goes Crypto: PYUSD Stablecoin Payout Option Now Live For US Creators

YouTube has quietly added a new payout option that lets creators in the US receive earnings in PayPal’s dollar-pegged token, PYUSD. According to several reports, the change appears to be active now and is being offered through PayPal’s payout rails rather than through any direct crypto custody by YouTube.

How The Option Works

PayPal’s head of crypto, May Zabaneh, confirmed the setup to Fortune and said the company uses its existing payout network to deliver PYUSD to recipients who opt in.

That means YouTube will still calculate and send creator earnings in dollars to PayPal’s system, and PayPal is then responsible for the conversion to the stablecoin and distribution to creators. The move builds on PayPal’s broader push to offer stablecoin tools to businesses and individual users.

PYUSD was introduced by PayPal in 2023 and has since been plugged into services such as Venmo and PayPal’s merchant tools. Reports have made clear that YouTube itself is not holding or moving crypto on behalf of creators; PayPal handles the token side.

Scope And Availability

For the moment, the option is available only to creators based in the US. A Google spokesperson confirmed the rollout but declined to share a schedule for any expansion beyond American users.

Creators who qualify for YouTube’s monetization programs may be able to opt into the new payout method for monthly earnings like ad revenue and paid memberships.

Some creators will value the extra choice. Receiving PYUSD could let a creator hold a dollar-pegged token onchain, spend it where PayPal tools accept it, or convert back to fiat through PayPal.

There are tradeoffs: holding a stablecoin brings different custody and tax considerations than a straight bank transfer. Reporting systems and bank rules may differ depending on how the creator finally cashes out.

The signup step should be familiar to anyone who already uses PayPal payouts on YouTube; it will likely appear as an alternative payment method in creator settings.

Once chosen, payments will flow through PayPal’s established payout system and show up as PYUSD in the recipient’s compatible wallet or PayPal balance, per the descriptions circulating in the trade press.

PYUSD’s onchain presence has grown rapidly. Market trackers list the stablecoin with close to $4 billion in circulating value and roughly 3.8 billion tokens in supply at the moment, figures that underline how much the token has expanded since launch.

Featured image from Unsplash, chart from TradingView