Mike Smith
13 hours ago
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American video platform Rumble has decided to bet on cryptocurrency micropayments and announced that by mid-December each profile will have a built-in wallet for tips in BTC. According to the company's calculations, the service is visited by 51 million people every month, which means that the demand for the first cryptocurrency will grow without additional advertising costs.
The technical part is provided by Tether, the USDT issuer that recently invested $775 million in Rumble. The viewer converts a dollar balance into satoshis, clicks “Tip,” and the coins instantly flow to the author with no network fees. The first test transfer was sent to blogger David Freiheit during the Plan ₿ Forum in Lugano.
The launch has been called a “trial salvo” before promoting the new USAT stablcoin targeting the US market. Everything fits into Tether's strategy: the company is diversifying its treasury income and in parallel adding to its BTC reserve, which recently exceeded $9.7 billion. Each integration expands the real scenarios of bitcoin use within the country, where P2P transfers and blockchain ATMs are still leading.
Analysts have calculated: with an average donation of $2, the daily turnover can reach 100 BTC if at least 10% of the audience uses the new option. Even half will lead to a noticeable shortage of coins on exchanges after the summer outflow into cold storage. The GENIUS Act, which equated secured stablecoins with cash, has removed some of the regulatory risks, and bitcoin remains formally outside the zone of strict control.
Content creators are encouraged by a bonus program: after receiving tips, they can leave part of the amount in the corporate BTC-treasury at 4% per annum. Storage is handled by Anchorage Digital, a custodian bank fully licensed in the US. For the authors it is a savings tool, for the platform it is a way to retain an audience and create a new revenue stream.
Observers note that so far bitcoin-tea in the US has only offered niche projects, while Rumble already has a multi-million dollar base and a partner willing to smooth out volatility. Economists emphasize: the Rumble model brings the focus back to the utilitarian side of the technology, turning a like into a financial gesture and showing that bitcoin can serve not only funds and traders, but also ordinary viewers of the YouTube generation. If the experiment proves successful, micropayments in BTC could quickly become an industry standard for the media industry, where creators are looking for ways to bypass card fees.
