Pornhub drops USDT for USDC

Adult website Pornhub is no longer accepting tether (USDT) for payouts and is now switching to Circle-issued USDC instead.

That’s according to OnlyFans content creator Gracie Hartie, who shared a screenshot of an email Pornhub allegedly sent out clarifying the change. 

In the screenshot, Pornhub claims that it was switching from USDT to USDC to make payouts “more reliable.” 

It added that “USDC is a fully-backed, MiCA-compliant and regulated stablecoin, making it a more secure option for your earnings.” 

Read more: Tether challenges USDC Solana hegemony with $127.5M Drift bailout

“It’s pegged 1:1 to the US dollar,” Pornhub stated, adding that it “works just like USDT on the ERC-20 network.”

Pornhub’s model program page no longer lists USDT as a payment method. Instead, it lists USDC and other payment methods, including Paxum, Verge, and Cosmo.

Pornhub made USDT its choice for payouts on its site in 2020 following PayPal’s decision to cut ties with the platform.  

It said at the time, “Since PayPal’s decision to stop payouts to thousands of Models two months ago, we’ve been hustling to…offer you more options.”

As part of Pornhub’s stablecoin integration of USDT the company used Justin Sun’s TronLink wallet for the payments. This infrastructure partnership between Pornhub and Sun no longer appears on Pornhub’s model program.

Before USDC cucked USDT, USDT cucked USDC

Earlier this month, another USDT/USDC switch occurred when USDT stepped in to help the hacked Drift Protocol with a $127.5 million bailout. 

Drift was drained for around $285 million after its team was infiltrated, likely by North Korean-linked hackers who compromised a multisig wallet.

This bailout deal, however, meant that Drift would “transition its settlement asset from USDC to USDT.”

Read more: Inside the $280M Drift hack: weeks of setup, minutes to drain

Protos has reached out to Pornhub and Tether for comment and will update this piece should we hear anything back.

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