YouTube pays US channel operators in PayPal’s stablecoin PYUSD for the first time

• YouTube has activated a payout option in the USA where proceeds can be paid out via PayPal as PYUSD.
• According to reports, the offer is initially limited to US users and runs via PayPal, not YouTube’s own crypto infrastructure.

YouTube introduces a new payout option for US channel operators. Anyone who earns money in the partner program will in future be able to have it credited as PYUSD, i.e. a dollar-based crypto token from PayPal. The whole thing applies according to the first Report as live since December 12, 2025, because YouTube is otherwise rather cautious when it comes to such topics.

Payment is made via PayPal, YouTube is left out

The point is not that YouTube is suddenly managing crypto itself. It doesn’t. The leverage is with PayPal, where PYUSD is offered as a payment form and YouTube passes this option on in the payout flow. For channel operators, this practically means that they end up in the PayPal environment, not in a YouTube wallet. In short, YouTube keeps its hands clean.

In practice, this should dock with the existing PayPal payment channels that YouTube uses anyway, including via PayPal Hyperwallet in the payment settings. Anyone who has ever hung on about the settings knows how unglamorous it is. But it fits because it is an existing money route, only with another target currency.

PayPal’s own dollar token is being pushed

PYUSD has been around since 2023. PayPal describes the token as being fully backed by US dollar deposits, short-term US government bonds and similar liquid assets, and it is said to be redeemable one-for-one against US dollars. That’s the official narrative, and it makes the topic easier for platforms like YouTube because it sounds more like payments than speculation.

PayPal has also announced that PYUSD will also become available on Stellar in 2025, subject to regulatory approvals. This plays indirectly into this because it shows that PayPal is not treating the token as an experiment, but as a product line that is intended to fit into more systems. And then at some point something like this ends up in payouts to channel operators.

What remains open is the pace for other countries. In the reports, activation is clearly limited to the USA. It doesn’t say whether and when this will come to Europe, and in real operations it ultimately depends on rules, taxes, payout service providers, all that part that rarely appears in a nice product report.