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 Zero-Fee Ecosystem Payouts.
Key takeaways
- 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."
Start Sending Zero-Fee Crypto Payouts
Turning Payouts Into a Revenue Line
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.
From that point, recipients can:
- Swap between assets with lower fees and cashback
- Trade crypto with 0% network fees
- Gain interest with unlimited crypto loans
- Earn crypto via staking
- Set limit orders
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.
Take Pro With You With ChangeNOW Mobile
ChangeNOW Pro clients can send funds directly to each other. Just an email or Client ID is enough, and the transfer is:
- Free — 0% fee, always.
- Instant — settled off-chain, no confirmations to wait for.
And if the other side isn't a ChangeNOW Pro client yet? We create their account automatically and send an invite to claim the funds.
Currently available for Android only. We'll notify you as soon as iOS support goes live.
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.
