Marshall Islands Makes History: Universal Basic Income Now Payable in Crypto
The Marshall Islands just fired a shot across the bow of traditional finance. The Pacific nation is rolling out a Universal Basic Income program with a radical twist: citizens can opt to receive their payments in cryptocurrency.
Bypassing the Bureaucracy
This isn't just a pilot or a thought experiment. It's live policy. By integrating crypto directly into a state-backed financial support system, the Marshall Islands is effectively building a public financial rail that operates outside the legacy banking corridor. The move cuts out intermediary banks and their associated fees—a direct transfer from the national treasury to a citizen's digital wallet.
A Sovereign Digital Experiment
The initiative transforms the theoretical benefits of blockchain—transparency, reduced transaction costs, and financial inclusion—into a tangible public utility. For unbanked populations on remote atolls, this could mean instant access to funds without needing a physical bank branch. It's a sovereign gamble on digital asset infrastructure as a core utility, not just a speculative investment.
The finance world's old guard will likely scoff, calling it a risky gimmick while quietly checking their own stablecoin research. The Marshall Islands, however, isn't waiting for permission. It's building the future of money, one SOV—or satoshi—at a time.
Marshall Islands Says UBI Aims to Boost Inclusion, Not Replace Work
Finance Minister David Paul said the scheme was designed to ensure broad inclusion rather than replace employment income.
“We the government want to make sure no one is left behind,” Paul told the Guardian, adding that the payments are intended to act as a social safety net and a morale boost rather than a substitute for work.
The Marshall Islands, a Pacific nation of around 42,000 people located between Hawaii and Australia, faces unique economic and geographic challenges.
Many communities are spread across remote atolls, complicating the delivery of public services and financial assistance. Officials say the cryptocurrency option was introduced to help overcome those logistical barriers.
The program is funded through a trust established under a long-standing agreement with the United States, partly aimed at compensating the Marshall Islands for decades of US nuclear testing.
The fund holds more than $1.3 billion in assets, with Washington committed to contributing an additional $500 million through 2027.
HISTORIC NEWS
We’re helping tokenize a nation.
The Marshall Islands is launching blockchain-based UBI, giving citizens dollar-denominated tokens they can receive, store, and send peer-to-peer from their phones.
Powered by Crossmint Wallets pic.twitter.com/lvAWjTI6SW
Dr. Huy Pham, an associate professor and crypto-fintech lead at RMIT University, said the initiative represents a global first.
“This is the world’s first national rollout of a UBI program,” he said, noting that the use of blockchain technology at a countrywide level is highly unusual.
The crypto payments are made using a US dollar-pegged stablecoin, a choice officials say provides price stability while allowing fast, traceable transfers across hundreds of islands.
Still, uptake of the digital option remains limited. According to the Marshall Islands Social Security Administration, about 60% of the first payments were made via bank deposits, with most of the remainder issued as checks.
Only around a dozen people have opted to receive their UBI through the digital wallet so far.
Sam Altman’s World Aspires to Create a Global UBI Mechanism
Sam Altman’s World, originally launched as Worldcoin, has also positioned its blockchain initiative as a path toward a global UBI mechanism.
The project’s Core idea is to verify each person’s unique human identity using biometric scans. The “Orb” device creates a World ID that proves a user is real and not a bot, enabling fair distribution of its native token, WLD.
Verified users receive allocations of WLD, which some view as a FORM of UBI within the network, aimed at expanding financial inclusion and economic participation worldwide.
World also launched World Chain, an ethereum layer-2 blockchain, last year. The network serves its 15 million verified users with a “World ID” obtained via iris scanning.
