Big Tech continues to tiptoe into crypto. The latest example is a move by YouTube to let creators on the video platform choose to receive payouts in PayPal’s stablecoin. The head of crypto at PayPal, May Zabaneh, confirmed the arrangement to Fortune, adding that the feature is live and, as of now, only applies to users in the U.S.
A spokesperson for Google, which owns YouTube, confirmed the video site has added payouts for creators in PayPal’s stablecoin but declined to comment further.
YouTube is already an existing customer of PayPal’s and uses the fintech giant’s payouts service, which helps large enterprises pay gig workers and contractors.
Early in the third quarter, PayPal added the capability for payment recipients to receive their checks in PayPal’s stablecoin, PYUSD. Afterward, YouTube decided to give that option to creators, who receive a share of earnings from the content they post on the platform, said Zabaneh.
“The beauty of what we’ve built is that YouTube doesn’t have to touch crypto, and so we can help take away that complexity,” she added.
Big Tech eyes stablecoins
YouTube’s interest in stablecoins comes as Google and other Big Tech companies have shown interest in the cryptocurrencies amid a wave of hype in Silicon Valley and beyond.
The tokens, which are pegged to underlying assets like the U.S. dollar, are longtime features of the crypto industry. But over the past year, they’ve exploded into the mainstream, especially after President Donald Trump signed into law a new bill regulating the crypto assets. Proponents say they are an upgrade over existing financial infrastructure, and big fintechs have taken notice, including Stripe. In February, the payments giant closed a blockbuster $1.1 billion purchase of the stablecoin startup Bridge.
PayPal has long been an earlier mover in crypto among large tech firms. In 2020, it let users buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, and a handful of other cryptocurrencies. And, in 2023, it launched the PYUSD stablecoin, which now has a market capitalization of nearly $4 billion, according to CoinGecko.
PayPal has slowly integrated PYUSD throughout its stable of products. Users can hold it in a PayPal digital wallet as well as Venmo, another financial app that PayPal owns. They can use it to pay merchants. And in February, a PayPal executive said small to medium-size merchants will be able to use it to pay vendors.
YouTube’s addition of payouts in PYUSD isn’t the first time Google has experimented with PayPal’s stablecoin. An executive at Google Cloud, the tech giant’s cloud computing arm, previously toldFortune that it had received payments from two of its customers in PYUSD.
