Deel powers payroll for 40,000+ businesses across 150 countries. Today, they launched DLUSD, a dollar-backed stablecoin, and the Deel stablecoin wallet for its global contractor base. Workers can hold a dollar-backed balance, earn, and soon will also be able to spend globally via a card, all inside the platform they already use to get paid. Tempo is Deel’s exclusive chain partner for wallet and earn products. Read the full Deel case study →
In markets like Argentina, currency devaluation has made local earnings increasingly unreliable. The Argentine peso lost over 50% of its value against the dollar in a single year. A Deel survey found 84.6% of contractors in Argentina would choose USD over local currency, yet accessing dollars remains difficult. Government restrictions cap purchases, local banks impose extensive documentation requirements and minimum balances, and many simply don’t offer USD accounts at all.
Millions of contractors around the world watch their earnings lose value the moment they land. Today we give them the infrastructure to change that: a dollar-backed balance inside the platform they already use, rewards that accrue automatically, and a card to spend anywhere. No new account or learning curve required.
— Thierry Edde, Head of Crypto, Deel
Today, Deel’s new stablecoin wallet gives workers outside the US, UK, and Eurozone a dollar-backed balance inside the Deel platform, with three core features:
- Hold. A USD-backed balance, DLUSD, that tracks USD value 1:1 and is always redeemable.
- Earn. A single-tap opt-in to accrue rewards.
- Spend. A waitlist is available for the stablecoin card.
Workers never interact with the underlying infrastructure. There is no new account, no separate app, no key management. The whole experience sits inside the Deel account contractors already use to receive pay and manage contracts.
Deel is at the forefront of redefining what global payroll should look like, and has designed an experience that brings the power of stablecoins to global contractors without the complexity of crypto. Tempo is proud to partner with Deel on DLUSD, the contractor wallets, and Earn, to power reliable, private, and economical payroll across 150+ countries.
— Ani Narayan, GTM, Tempo
What runs on Tempo
Tempo is Deel’s exclusive chain partner for the contractor wallet stack with DLUSD issued on Tempo. The embedded wallets that hold contractor balances are provisioned by Privy on Tempo. The Morpho-powered earn product runs on Tempo.
Three Tempo capabilities mattered most for the architecture:
Native account abstraction. Passkey authentication, transaction batching, and fee sponsorship are built into the protocol. That is what lets a contractor sign in with Face ID, never touch a private key, and have Deel sponsor fees on their behalf.
Fixed, predictable fees paid in stablecoins. Every Tempo transaction costs $0.001, paid in stablecoins with no account rent. Tempo doesn’t charge a storage deposit to keep accounts in state. For a wallet operating at consumer scale with small per-user balances, that combination of fee predictability, no rent overhead, and no exposure to a volatile native token were prerequisites.
Privacy at the protocol level. Deel plans to use Tempo’s Privacy Zones to keep contractor wallet balances and payout history confidential from public view, while preserving auditable access for Deel.
What’s next
The Deel stablecoin wallet launches in Latin America, starting with early access in Argentina. Contractors in remaining LATAM countries will be onboarded over the next few weeks, with APAC, MENA, and Africa to follow.
Get started
If you are a platform building stablecoin balances for your users, get in touch.
