YouTube Now Lets U.S. Creators Get Paid in PayPal’s PYUSD Stablecoin

YouTube just handed U.S. creators a new payment option—and it's not dollars. The platform now lets eligible creators receive earnings in PayPal's PYUSD stablecoin, marking a quiet but significant step toward crypto in mainstream creator economies.

Cutting Out the Middleman

This move bypasses traditional banking rails for a subset of payments. Creators who opt in can convert ad revenue and other earnings directly into the dollar-pegged digital currency, potentially speeding up transfers and offering an on-ramp to the broader crypto ecosystem—without ever touching a bank.

A Quiet Nod to Digital Assets

YouTube isn't shouting about decentralization, but the integration speaks volumes. By partnering with a regulated entity like PayPal, the platform dips a toe into digital currency with a veneer of corporate safety. It's a hedge, not a revolution—offering crypto-adjacency while keeping Wall Street's traditional plumbing mostly intact.

The Fine Print Reality

Adoption hinges on creators seeing real utility. Faster settlement? Maybe. Easier cross-border payments? Possibly. But for many, it's just an extra step before cashing out to actual dollars—another feature for the finance team to explain, buried in a settings menu.

This isn't a rebellion against fiat; it's a corporate-sanctioned trial balloon. YouTube gets to look innovative, PayPal locks in another revenue stream, and creators get a new checkbox. The system absorbs another alternative, neatly packaging it as a premium feature. How very Web 2.5.

How PYUSD payouts work

YouTube already relies on PayPal’s large-scale payout system for paying creators, gig workers, and contractors. Earlier this year, PayPal added the ability for payment recipients to receive their earnings directly in PYUSD rather than cash.

YouTube has now extended that option to creators who want their revenue from ads, memberships, and subscriptions delivered in stablecoin rather than through traditional bank transfers.

Zabaneh noted that PayPal manages the crypto portion end-to-end. YouTube continues to pay in dollars, while PayPal converts them to PYUSD for creators who opt in. This keeps YouTube from having to navigate crypto custody or regulatory hurdles while still offering a crypto-based payout option.

PayPal, one of the earlier tech giants to embrace crypto, launched PYUSD in 2023. According to data from CoinGecko, the token now has a market value approaching $4 billion and is increasingly threaded through PayPal’s ecosystem.

PayPal has gradually integrated PYUSD across its products. It allows users to hold it in their digital wallets or Venmo and use it to pay merchants, and soon enable small-to-medium merchants to pay vendors with it. 

Big tech’s growing shift toward stablecoins

The update arrives as big tech players pay closer attention to stablecoins and blockchain-based payment rails. In July, the U.S. President Donald TRUMP signed the GENIUS Act (the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act), creating the first federal rulebook for stablecoin payments in the country.

Major firms like Stripe have also moved deeper into the space, most notably through the company’s $1.1 billion acquisition of stablecoin startup Bridge earlier this year. In June, Bridge also filed its Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) and NYDFS trust bank applications.

In June, companies such as Apple, Google, Meta, X, and Airbnb began exploring ways to integrate stablecoins into their payment systems as part of early discussions with crypto firms. The goal was to lower fees and speed up cross-border transactions using dollar-pegged digital tokens.

Google publicly acknowledged its interest, calling stablecoins a major upgrade to existing payment rails, while Airbnb said it was monitoring the space closely. Meta, after previously shelving its crypto ambitions, also returned to evaluating stablecoin options.

Now, YouTube’s integration adds yet another channel for PayPal’s stablecoin and potentially brings millions of creators into direct contact with on-chain payments, whether or not they’ve used crypto before.

Also Read: 21Shares Forecasts $1T Stablecoins, $500B Tokenized Assets in 2026