Stablecoin Off-Ramp Volumes Surge 446% as Payroll Use Hits $1B

Employers do not need to run entirely in crypto. Rise allows companies to fund payroll in fiat or stablecoins while workers select their preferred withdrawal method each pay cycle. Visa launched a pilot in late 2025 that lets businesses fund payouts in fiat while recipients receive USDC directly into wallets. Visa positioned the service for creators, freelancers and gig workers in markets where conventional banking is slow or constrained. The sender does not need to become a crypto treasury operation. Fiat enters one side of the payment flow and stablecoins emerge on the other.

Weekend transaction data underscores the shift. Mercuryo's stablecoin cash-out activity averaged roughly 86% of weekday levels in H1 2026. Traditional banks settle on business days, but blockchain balances remain transferable continuously. For a trader that flexibility is convenient. For a worker whose salary arrives across time zones, it is basic cash-flow management.

USDC and USDT dominate these flows rather than Bitcoin or Ethereum for an obvious reason. Workers receiving a salary generally do not want the purchasing power of next month's rent exposed to crypto volatility. Stablecoins separate the benefits of blockchain settlement from the price risk of a volatile asset. A worker can receive a token tied to the U.S. dollar without taking the same market exposure that comes with being paid in BTC or ETH. That feature becomes more valuable in countries where domestic currencies are volatile or access to dollar bank accounts is limited.

The trade-off is that the worker exchanges local-currency risk for exposure to the stablecoin issuer, its reserves and the regulatory treatment of the token. That risk profile is changing as U.S. stablecoin regulation takes shape. The GENIUS Act, enacted in July 2025, established a federal framework for payment stablecoin issuance. Treasury's implementation work covers reserve requirements, anti-money laundering obligations and sanctions compliance for permitted payment stablecoin issuers. Enterprise adoption depends on more than transfer speed. Companies need predictable compliance standards, accounting treatment and confidence that the stablecoin used for payroll can be redeemed reliably.

Mercuryo's 446% growth figure suggests that conversion demand can scale faster than crypto markets themselves when stablecoins become part of recurring financial behavior rather than occasional investment activity. The data worth watching next are not simply USDC and USDT market capitalization. Payroll withdrawal frequency, off-ramp costs, weekend usage, local-currency coverage and the share of workers who retain stablecoins instead of immediately converting them will provide a clearer picture of whether digital dollars are becoming a genuine salary currency or primarily a faster bridge between two traditional fiat systems.