Global payroll platform Deel will begin offering stablecoin payroll payments to workers in the UK and EU from next month through a partnership with MoonPay. The integration will allow employees to receive their paychecks in stablecoins directly into their non-custodial cryptocurrency wallets, with a US rollout planned at a later stage.
Deal announced in October that it pays $22 billion a year in payroll for more than 150 million employees worldwide. According to Tuesday’s announcement, the company plans to use MoonPay to handle stablecoin conversion and on-chain wallet distribution, effectively adding a crypto payment rail to its existing payroll infrastructure.
Under the arrangement, workers will be able to choose to receive part or all of their salary in stablecoins rather than local fiat currency. MoonPay will manage the conversion and payment processes, while Deel will continue to operate the payroll and compliance layer.
JP Richardson, co-founder and CEO of Exodus, said the partnership signals a broader transition of cryptocurrencies into everyday use. “We’re not going to lead the world to cryptocurrencies with a white paper; we’re going to do it with payroll,” Richardson wrote in X, arguing that stablecoin payroll will reduce cross-border payment delays and brokerage fees for workers around the world.
sauce: JP Richardson
The partnership expands Deel’s existing cryptocurrency payment options and adds another enterprise distribution channel to MoonPay, which holds a New York Bit license and a money transfer machine license across the US, as well as authorization under the EU’s MiCA framework.
The companies have not disclosed which stablecoins will be supported or how many users will opt-in at launch. The company also did not provide a specific timeline for its U.S. expansion or details about regulatory approvals related to the second phase.
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The stablecoin space is becoming increasingly crowded
While MoonPay and Deel’s rollout is aimed at workers in the UK and EU, the partnership comes amid a rapidly expanding market for USD-pegged tokens. Since the U.S. Congress established the federal framework for payments stablecoins with the GENIUS Act in July 2025, more companies are adopting regulated stablecoins in the United States.
In March, World Liberty Financial, a DeFi platform with ties to the Trump family, launched the USD1 stablecoin, and in January, Wyoming became the first US state to issue its own stablecoin, Frontier Stable Tokens (FRNT).
In the same month, Tether, the world’s largest issuer of stablecoin USDt (USDT), confirmed the launch of USAt, a USD-pegged token issued through Anchorage Digital Bank and positioned as a federally regulated payments stablecoin for use within the United States.
Some traditional U.S. banks are also preparing to enter the stablecoin market after the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation in December proposed a framework outlining how subsidiaries of FDIC-supervised banks can apply to issue stablecoins for payments.
Despite the wave of new entrants, the market remains highly concentrated. According to DefiLlama data, Tether’s USDt accounts for about 60% of the stablecoin market capitalization, while Circle’s USDt $USDC ($USDC) corresponds to approximately 24%.
Stablecoin market capitalization. sauce: Defilama
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