Deel said on Aug. 17 that its DLUSD stablecoin wallet is live in more than 80 countries, 11 weeks after a launch limited to Argentina.
The expansion routes a payroll platform that processes $22 billion a year into distributing dollar balances to contractors in markets where local banks make dollar accounts hard to get, and into lending those balances out through Morpho markets on Tempo. Deel is the reference customer for Tempo Earn, the yield product the Stripe- and Paradigm-incubated chain launched on Aug. 12.
“Get paid, then hold, earn, and spend, in DLUSD, a dollar-backed currency,” Deel wrote, crediting Bridge, embedded-wallet provider Privy, Tempo, Morpho and risk curator Sentora. Three of those five belong to Stripe: Bridge issues the token, Privy supplies the wallets and Tempo settles the transfers.
Deel serves more than 35,000 customers and 1.5 million workers across 150-plus countries, according to its Series E announcement, which valued the company at $17.3 billion on a $300 million round led by Ribbit Capital with Andreessen Horowitz and Coatue.
‘Digital Dollar Voucher’
Bridge, the Stripe subsidiary that now posts under the @Stablecoin handle, confirmed its role. “After getting paid through Deel, contractors can hold funds as DLUSD, Deel’s custom stablecoin issued through Bridge’s Open Issuance platform,” the company wrote.
Deel’s own help center describes the token differently: “DLUSD is not a cryptocurrency,” calling it “a digital dollar voucher that lives inside Deel — always worth $1, always convertible back to USD, and only usable within the platform.” Transfers are allowlisted at the chain level to verified contractors. Neither Deel nor Bridge has published reserve attestations for DLUSD.
The same page, last updated June 2, lists the linked spending card as “Coming Q3 2026.” Deel’s Monday post describes spending in DLUSD without giving a card availability date.
‘Up to 4% APR’ via Morpho
Deel’s promotional target rate at launch was “up to 4% APY,” which the company describes as “variable, not guaranteed, and driven by market conditions.” The rewards come from Morpho vaults deployed on Tempo rather than from the issuer, an arrangement that matters because Section 4(a)(11) of the GENIUS Act bars permitted payment stablecoin issuers from paying holders any interest or yield.
Regulators have not settled whether that structure clears the prohibition. The OCC’s proposed rule, published March 2, would create a rebuttable presumption that an issuer is paying interest when a “related third party” pays yield to holders, with the definition covering any person for whom an issuer mints under that person’s branding. No final rule exists. The statutory prohibition takes effect Jan. 18, 2027.
The wallet’s exclusion list — the US, UK, EU nations and Australia — has not changed with the expansion.
Tempo TVL Nearly Triples
Total value locked on Tempo stands at $39.99 million, up 6.9% in 24 hours, with stablecoin market capitalization of $53.22 million, according to DefiLlama. Four days earlier the chain held $14.4 million in TVL and about $29.9 million in stablecoins.
Morpho Blue is the largest protocol on the chain at $30.5 million in TVL, up 27% over seven days and 64.7% over the past month. Sentora, the institutional risk platform formed by the 2025 merger of IntoTheBlock and Trident Digital, curates the vaults and holds $22.23 million across four chains, up 5.5% on the week. Tempo Dex has $9.36 million.
Chain activity remains thin against those balances: 13,851 active addresses and $1.56 million in DEX volume over 24 hours, generating $5.34 in chain fees.
MORPHO traded at $2.11, up 4.9% on the day, per CoinGecko.
Tempo raised $500 million and went live on mainnet in March. Its validator set includes Stripe, Visa, Zodia Custody and MoneyGram, which brought cash-to-crypto ramps to Solana on Aug. 11.