Crypto Reporter
Shalini Nagarajan
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YouTube creators in the US can now choose to receive their payouts in PayPal’s dollar-backed stablecoin PYUSD, in a move that quietly pulls one of the world’s biggest creator platforms deeper into crypto rails.
PayPal crypto head, May Zabaneh, confirmed to Fortune that the feature is live and currently limited to US-based users.
A Google spokesperson confirmed to the outlet that creator payouts in PayPal’s stablecoin are now supported, while declining to provide further detail.
YouTube already uses PayPal’s mass payout infrastructure to pay creators, gig workers and contractors.
Big Tech’s Push Into Tokenized Money Grows As YouTube Adopts PYUSD
Earlier in the third quarter, PayPal added an option that lets payment recipients take their money in PYUSD instead of cash balances. YouTube then decided to extend that choice to creators who receive a share of revenue from the ads and subscriptions their videos generate.
Zabaneh said the structure means PayPal handles the crypto piece end-to-end. In practice, YouTube continues to interact with PayPal in fiat terms, while PayPal converts payouts into PYUSD for creators who opt in, reducing the technical and regulatory lift for the video platform.
The change lands as Big Tech leans further into stablecoins and tokenized money. Google and its peers have shown growing interest in crypto infrastructure during a fresh wave of digital asset hype in Silicon Valley. For YouTube, letting creators earn in stablecoins adds another toggle to its monetization toolkit without redesigning the core product.
Trump Era Stablecoin Rules And Mega Deals Propel Tokens Into Broader Finance
Stablecoins such as PYUSD track assets like the dollar and have long been a core building block of crypto trading. Over the past year, they have pushed further into mainstream finance, helped by President Donald Trump signing new federal legislation on stablecoin oversight and by a run of high-profile corporate deals.
Payments giant Stripe, for example, closed a $1.1B acquisition of stablecoin firm Bridge in February.
PayPal has been one of the earlier movers among large tech and payments companies. It enabled buying and selling of Bitcoin, Ethereum and a handful of other tokens in 2020, then launched PYUSD in 2023. The token now has a market value of nearly $4B, according to CoinGecko, and sits at the centre of the company’s on-chain strategy.
PYUSD Gains Reach As PayPal Pushes Its Stablecoin Into Everyday Payments
Since launch, PayPal has threaded PYUSD through its ecosystem. Users can hold the token in PayPal’s main wallet and in Venmo, spend it at supported merchants and, from this year, use it as a settlement asset for small and medium-sized businesses paying vendors.
The YouTube integration effectively extends that reach to millions of potential creators who may prefer to hold a dollar stablecoin rather than receive traditional bank payouts.
This is not the first time Google has interacted directly with PYUSD. An executive at Google Cloud previously told Fortune that the cloud division had accepted payments from two customers in the PayPal stablecoin, signalling that the company is willing to experiment with on chain settlement where it fits into existing contracts.
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