The short version
- Stripe stablecoin payouts now go straight to crypto wallets in more than 160 markets: US businesses can send USDC or OUSD, typically arriving in minutes.
- Each payout costs $0.50 plus 0.5%, so $5.50 on $1,000 against $25 for a SWIFT wire; above $4,900 the wire is cheaper.
- It is still a public preview, New York businesses are left out for now, and OUSD, not USDC, is Stripe’s default stablecoin.
$5.50 is what it now costs a US business to send $1,000 in Stripe stablecoin payouts straight to someone’s own crypto wallet. A SWIFT wire for the same payout costs $25 and can take up to a week.
Stripe announced the feature on Wednesday in its Global Payouts product, for recipients in more than 160 markets. Businesses can send USDC or OUSD to crypto wallets outside Stripe, and Stripe says the money typically lands in minutes. It came the same day Circle told Wall Street that USDC earned less in the third quarter.
Stripe’s crypto team posted it on X at 17:08 UTC (12:08 p.m. in New York):
US businesses can now send stablecoin payouts to crypto wallets in 160+ markets with @stripe Global Payouts, typically arriving in minutes.
Send OUSD or USDC directly from fiat or stablecoin balances in Stripe Treasury, with Stripe handling conversion as needed.
What Stripe Stablecoin Payouts Actually Do
A business funds the payout from a dollar or USDC balance in Stripe Treasury, its Stripe money account. Stripe handles any conversion, then sends the coins onchain to the wallet address the recipient gave.
The Stripe payouts docs list the networks:
- USDC: nine networks, among them Arbitrum, Base, Ethereum, Polygon, Solana and Stellar.
- OUSD: Base, Ethereum, Solana and Tempo, the payments blockchain Stripe backs.
Payouts can go out from the Stripe Dashboard or through the API. The recipient list counts 161 countries and regions, from Brazil and Nigeria to Vietnam.
There are limits. Stripe stablecoin payouts are a public preview, Stripe’s label for a product that is live but still being tuned. Businesses based in New York can’t use it yet and have to join a waitlist, and each recipient has to hand over a name and address before Stripe switches the wallet payout on.
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How Much Does a Stripe Stablecoin Payout Cost?
Each payout costs $0.50 plus 0.5% of the amount, according to Stripe’s pricing page. On a $1,000 payout that is $5.50, against a flat $25 for a SWIFT wire.
The wallet route wins on the small payouts that freelancers and online sellers get. The percentage catches up on bigger ones: at $4,900 the stablecoin fee reaches $25, so a larger payout is cheaper by wire, if the business can wait.
SIDE TRAIL: Circle Earnings Beat: $865M Revenue, but $182M Came From ARC Tokens
Is OUSD the Bigger Story for USDC?
Circle earns interest on the reserves behind every USDC in circulation, so more USDC moving through Stripe helps it. But Stripe made OUSD, not USDC, its default stablecoin on September 30.
OUSD is issued by Bridge, the stablecoin company Stripe owns, and run by Open Standard, a group backed by Stripe, Coinbase, Visa and others. DefiLlama’s stablecoin tracker shows about $916 million of OUSD five weeks after launch, against $71.1 billion of USDC.
That gap is huge, and USDC has been going the wrong way. Circle’s average USDC in circulation fell to $73.3 billion in Q3 from $76.5 billion in Q2, which is why its reserve income slipped.
Stripe first showed payouts to 160 countries in stablecoins at its Sessions conference earlier this year. The live version keeps both coins on the menu and leaves the choice to the business.
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For a recipient, the change is simple: a stablecoin in their own wallet, minutes after the business presses send. For the business it comes down to size: if the payout is under $4,900, the wallet beats a wire on price as well as speed.
Satoshi Flipper has more than 20 years of trading experience, starting in stocks before moving into crypto in 2017, and holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management. The edge is reading the economic data: rate decisions, inflation, jobs numbers, earnings and the US markets that move Bitcoin.
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