Crypto has already changed our lives dramatically, but it still has more potential. And payments are one of the things that can be better.
Wallet creation, networks, and seed phrases stand between people and their money. NOWPayments thinks that friction is the reason crypto payouts haven't become mainstream yet. So, ChangeNOW Pro and NOWPayments collaborated to offer you .
ChangeNOW and NOWPayments introduce a new feature – Zero-Fee Ecosystem Payouts.
Businesses can send crypto payouts to an email address. No wallet address needed.
A ChangeNOW Pro account is created automatically to receive the funds.
Settlement is instant (under a second) and 0% fee inside the ecosystem.
Businesses can also earn from what recipients do with the funds afterward, not just save on sending them.
Why Crypto Payments Are Still Hard to Receive
A standard crypto payout asks a lot of the person receiving it. And one wrong click can send funds nowhere to be found.
And it's not just recipients who struggle, businesses feel the friction too. As Kate Lifshits, CEO of NOWPayments, puts it:
"There were really four problems stacked on top of each other," says Kate. "First, cost. Businesses shouldn't have to pay every time they send someone money. Second, speed and trust. A business's own users deserve to get paid instantly, not wait around for a payout to land. Third, and this is the part I'm most excited about, it changes the economics completely. Businesses can start earning from the activity their users generate inside their wallets. And fourth, it kills the operational overhead, because every account is created automatically."
The third point Kate names is the one payout products don't even consider mostly.
In a standard payout, money leaves the business's account, and the relationship ends there.
Ecosystem Payouts change what happens after the money is sent. ChangeNOW Pro account is created inside the same ecosystem the payout came from. A payout can be the start of a relationship where the business earns a share of the activity its own recipients generate simply by using the account.
For a payroll provider paying thousands of employees a month, or a platform paying thousands of creators, that can be a game changer.
Traditional Payout vs NOW Ecosystem's Crypto Payouts
Traditional payouts cover payrolls, affiliate commissions, freelance, gig payments, cashback, marketplace settlements. We do the same thing just with a much lighter process for the user and far less paperwork.
Let's compare the traditional flow and ours, using payroll as the example
Bank Payroll
NOW Ecosystem Payout
Setup
Formal agreement between company and bank
Sign up with NOWPayments, ready in minutes
Technical integration
Required
Not required
Payout fee
Setup fee, monthly subscription, per-employee fee
0% inside the NOW ecosystem
Payout currency
National currency
Any of 1000+ crypto assets
Employee identifier
Account / card number
Email address
If the employee has no account
Bank opens an account, issues a card to activate
Account opens automatically
What the employee gets
Payroll card + standard banking products
Full crypto toolkit: exchange, cashback, loans, staking
It is the same familiar flow, just radically simplified. Fewer steps for the company, and zero learning curve for the person on the other end.
How it works
We didn't design this in a vacuum. Creator platforms using NOWPayments told us the same story: paying someone in crypto meant asking them to set up a wallet first.
But recipients don't need to know anything about crypto until the money's already theirs.
That's why the ChangeNOW ecosystem designed this payout flow to be as simple and frictionless as possible.
The sender enters the recipient's email address, the only "address" involved.
The recipient gets an email with a link.
They confirm with a code from that email (must-have security step).
If they don't already have a ChangeNOW Pro account, one is created automatically.
The funds are already there, ready to use.
That last part is the actual shift. The money exists in an account you own, whether you've logged in yet or not.
"We basically brought the PayPal-style mechanic into crypto: simple, familiar, no learning curve," Lifshits explains. "And once you do that, you're basically building an ecosystem of users and businesses around it."
How it Works Under the Hood
The main thing that helps us to achieve 1 second speed and 0% fees is that the process happens off-chain.
No crypto physically moves between the two services for each individual transfer. Both NOWPayments' partner funds (senders) and ChangeNOW's client funds (recipients) are 100% reserved, split across cold, warm, and hot storage, and available for physical withdrawal at any time.
Transactions are tracked by an independent ledger using double-entry accounting and control procedures. That's what helps to prevent double-spending, negative balances, or funds getting stuck in an unclear state between the two systems.
Instant Payments Benefits
Both sides, a sender and receiver, benefit from the tool.
"The speed is literally one second, there are no costs involved, and the cherry on top – business itself can earn from these payouts," Lifshits says.
For the business:
0% fee inside the ecosystem.
Global coverage with no network or region to pick upfront.
Settlement time under 1 second.
The built-in affiliate/cashback mechanic that turns recipient activity into a revenue line.
For the recipient:
No wallet, account, or seed phrase required to receive funds.
An email address instead of a wallet address.
The full ChangeNOW Pro toolkit unlocked the moment they claim the funds.
And these are not just promises, it's how the thing really is. Here's a hands-on test from a reviewer here:
Important note: zero fees apply only within the ecosystem, from NOWPayments to a ChangeNOW Pro account. The moment funds move out to an external wallet, standard withdrawal terms appear.
Who can use this feature
The obvious use cases are anywhere a business sends money to people. Affiliate and referral programs, freelance and gig payments, cashback schemes, creator payouts, and marketplaces settling with sellers.
"In theory this works for any business that runs payouts," Lifshits notes, "but the use case I'm most excited about is payroll – either inside companies directly, or through payroll providers."
Payroll is high-volume, recurring, and exactly the kind of flow where shaving fees and wallet-support tickets off every cycle compounds fast.
What a ChangeNOW Pro Account Unlocks
Once money arrives, just login in Pro account and withdraw money. Or better – explore the broader NOW SuperApp setup.
That's the whole point of pairing NOWPayments and ChangeNOW Pro in the first place. We made a collaborative product where one side gets the funds out the door and the other turns them into a full crypto toolkit the moment they land.
Conclusion
Asked whether the ecosystem-payout model expands beyond this, Lifshits kept it simple:
"Yes, we're planning to expand both payouts and payments across the ecosystem."
Sending crypto can be as easy as sending an email, and this feature is just the first place that idea shows up.
FAQ
Sending crypto to a large number of recipients in one batch, usually via a CSV upload or a single API call, instead of processing every transfer as its own transaction.
Routing payouts to ChangeNOW Pro accounts is the cheapest option, since there's neither a network fee nor a service fee. NOWPayments puts the savings at roughly $5,000 per 1,000 transactions compared to standard on-chain payouts.
No. A ChangeNOW Pro account is created automatically the moment a payout is sent to their email, with nothing to set up beforehand.
Kate Lifshits reassures:
"It doesn't matter whether the recipient already has a wallet or not, the money arrives either way. When they're ready to claim it, it's already sitting there waiting for them."
There is no expiry, no automatic reversal, and no re-send logic for the sender to manage.
Absolutely. NOWPayments offers global coverage, and the email-based flow doesn't require the sender to choose a blockchain network or region in advance.
If the email address isn't registered yet, the recipient receives an invitation to create a ChangeNOW Pro account and claim the funds. Once they sign up using the same email address, the funds are already waiting in their balance.
Until the registration is completed, the sender can request a refund. This is especially useful if the payout was sent to an incorrect email address.
The payout is delivered directly to the recipient's existing ChangeNOW Pro account. Automatic account creation only happens when the email address isn't associated with an account yet.
$1.5 quadrillion in annual stablecoin transactions by 2035. On-chain payments are set to rival Visa and Mastercard, Chainalysis reports. This rapid growth is reshaping the future of payments.
Empowering Businesses with Secure Crypto Solutions: ChangeNOW's API for Seamless Integration
In the rapidly evolving digital landscape, businesses are constantly seeking innovative solutions to stay ahead of the curve. It is particularly true for companies operating within the cryptocurrency sphere, where the demand for secure, efficient, and reliable services is on the rise. This is where ChangeNOW's exchange API comes into play, a potent tool that offers diverse benefits to businesses, making it an invaluable asset in today's dynamic crypto ecosystem.
The Crypto Entry Barrier Resolved | ChangeNOW Pro & NOWPayments Payout Feature | ChangeNOW Blog