X is in talks to pay content royalties to influential users in stablecoins such as Circle’s USDC, a person familiar with the plans said on August 20, 2026. The discussions arrive as the platform winds down its long-running Revenue Sharing program.
Key Takeaways
- X is discussing how stablecoins, including Circle’s USDC, could carry royalty payments to influential users who post content on the platform.
- The talks are ongoing, and the same source works with other social media platforms that are testing stablecoin commissions for influencers.
- Stablecoins now hold a combined market cap above $300 billion and already move cross-border payments for businesses of many sizes.
- SpaceX already collects cross-border Starlink payments in stablecoins, which gives Musk’s companies a tested template for X to copy.
- X has not responded to requests for comment, and no coin choice or launch timeline has been confirmed.
What We Know?
The discussions cover how X could route royalty payments to influential users through stablecoins, with USDC named as one example. The person familiar with the plans, according to CoinDesk, also works with other social media platforms that are testing stablecoin payments as commissions for influencers. Media representatives of X did not respond to requests for comment.
Circle Internet Group (NYSE: CRCL), the issuer of USDC, has built its business on exactly the use case X is weighing. Stablecoins settle in minutes and cost less than card networks or bank wires on cross-border routes, a pattern documented across stablecoin market statistics, and X pays content providers around the world.
SCOOP: Elon Musk’s @X is exploring stablecoin payments for content creators as the platform overhauls its creator rewards program.@IanAllison123 reports. pic.twitter.com/W2IOFUplzZ
— CoinDesk (@CoinDesk) August 20, 2026
The Payout System X Is Already Rebuilding
The stablecoin talks land in the middle of a payout overhaul that is already public. X announced the change in a post from its official X Creators account: Revenue Sharing gives way to the Original Content Rewards Program, which the company says is designed to “reward creators who bring original ideas, expertise, reporting, creativity, and commentary to X.“
The staffing points in the same direction. In March 2026, Musk hired Benji Taylor as head of design at X, in a role tied to both xAI and SpaceX, as the company’s X Money payments push inched closer. Taylor previously led design at Coinbase Global’s (NASDAQ: COIN) Base blockchain network and has a background in wallets and decentralized finance.
Stablecoins Already Run Inside Musk’s Companies
SpaceX offers the working precedent. The company already uses stablecoins to collect cross-border payments from customers of Starlink, its satellite internet service, which operates in a range of emerging markets where card and banking rails are slow or expensive.
X would not be the first platform to test the idea either. The person familiar with the talks works with other social media companies running similar experiments, and stablecoin creator payouts have already surfaced elsewhere in the industry.
What We Don’t Know?
The report leaves the biggest questions open. X has not confirmed the talks and no timeline exists. USDC stands as an example rather than a decision. Whether payouts would run through X Money or an outside processor is unanswered. So is how a stablecoin option would interact with eligibility for the Original Content Rewards Program, and whether creators could still choose ordinary bank payouts.
The evidence shows discussions and nothing more. Nothing in the report indicates a signed agreement with Circle or any other issuer, and a single unnamed source carries the entire claim.
Creators already enrolled in X’s monetization tools do not need to change anything today. The practical step is to read the X Creators post outlining the Original Content Rewards Program, since that change is confirmed and already published.
CoinLaw’s Takeaway
The logic behind the talks is easy to follow. X pays a creator base scattered across dozens of jurisdictions, and traditional payment rails handle small, frequent, cross-border payouts slowly and at real cost. Stablecoins already do that job faster and cheaper, which is the same reason Starlink adopted them for collections in emerging markets. Seen next to the payout program overhaul and the Taylor hire, the talks read less like a crypto experiment and more like the payments layer of a rebuilt creator economy on X.
The distance between exploring and shipping could still be long. One unnamed source carries the story, and X has said nothing. The confirmed facts around it are what give the report weight: the program overhaul is public, the crypto-native design hire is real, and stablecoin collections already run inside another Musk company. If a deal lands, Circle would be a clear beneficiary, because royalty flows of this kind would add recurring payment volume on top of USDC’s recent supply growth.
