Source: Fortune ; Compiled by: Jinse Finance
Large technology companies continue to cautiously venture into the cryptocurrency space.
A recent example is YouTube, which allows its content creators to choose to receive a share of their revenue in PayPal's stablecoin, PYUSD . May Zabaneh, PayPal's head of cryptocurrency, confirmed this arrangement to Fortune magazine, adding that the feature is live but currently only available to users in the United States .
A Google spokesperson, who owns YouTube, confirmed that the video site has begun paying creators using PayPal's stablecoin PYUSD, but declined to comment further.
YouTube is already an existing PayPal customer and uses the fintech giant's payment service, which helps large businesses pay gig workers and contractors.
At the beginning of the third quarter, PayPal added a feature that allowed recipients to receive checks in PYUSD. Zabaneh stated that YouTube subsequently decided to offer this option to content creators as well, allowing them to earn a portion of the revenue from the content they publish on the platform.
She added, "The beauty of the system we've built is that YouTube doesn't need to deal with cryptocurrency, so we can help eliminate that complexity."
Major tech companies are turning their attention to stablecoins.
Amid a cryptocurrency craze sweeping Silicon Valley and beyond, Google and other major tech companies have also shown interest in cryptocurrencies, with YouTube's interest in stablecoins emerging against this backdrop.
These tokens, pegged to underlying assets like the US dollar, have long been an integral part of the cryptocurrency industry. However, they have gained rapid popularity over the past year, especially after President Donald Trump signed a new bill regulating crypto assets. Supporters argue that they represent an upgrade to existing financial infrastructure, a point that has attracted attention from large fintech companies, including Stripe. In February of this year, the payments giant Stripe completed its $1.1 billion acquisition of stablecoin startup Bridge.
Among large tech companies, PayPal has been a pioneer in the cryptocurrency space. In 2020, it allowed users to buy and sell Bitcoin, Ethereum, and several other cryptocurrencies. In 2023, PayPal launched the PYSUD stablecoin, which, according to CoinGecko data, currently has a market capitalization of nearly $4 billion.
PayPal has gradually integrated PYUSD into all its products. Users can store PYUSD in their PayPal digital wallets and Venmo, another PayPal-owned financial application. They can also use PYUSD to pay merchants. In February of this year, a PayPal executive stated that small and medium-sized businesses will also be able to use PYUSD to pay suppliers.
YouTube's addition of PYUSD as a payment option is not Google's first attempt to use PayPal's stablecoin. Previously, an executive from Google's cloud computing division told Fortune magazine that the company had received payments in PYUSD from two customers.
