Rain and Toku Join Forces on Stablecoin Payroll

Card-issuing and payments platform Rain launched a stablecoin-focused collaboration with payroll firm Toku.

The partnership will see the companies “launch the first real-time, compliant stablecoin payroll system for global teams,” according to a Thursday (June 26) press release. Employers can fund and settle payroll instantly in stablecoins in more than 100 jurisdictions.

“Payroll has remained one of the last major financial flows stuck in outdated systems,” Rain co-founder and CEO Farooq Malik said in the release. “By combining Rain’s on-chain infrastructure with Toku’s compliance expertise, we’re bringing the benefits of stablecoins to the most important payment of all: your paycheck.”

The collaboration connects Rain’s programmable payment rails to Toku’s employment and tax compliance infrastructure, “streamlining payroll operations for modern, distributed workforces,” per the release.

“Fiat payroll still moves on rails built in the 1970s,” Toku co-founder and CEO Ken O’Friel said in the release. “Stablecoin payroll [can] unleash a fundamental restructuring of corporate cash management. We’re excited to be working with Rain and making stablecoin payroll not just possible, but seamless, scalable and compliant by default.”

Stablecoins are achieving regulatory momentum and wider adoption by enterprises, the release said. Still, stablecoins’ “ongoing march toward widespread adoption may end up being less inevitable than it seems,” PYMNTS wrote Thursday.

Earlier this week, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) previewed its BIS Annual Economic Report 2025, saying stablecoins “perform poorly” as a form of sound money.

Most stablecoins fail vital criteria for a currency, like price stability, universal acceptability and trust. Stablecoins are frequently exploited by criminals and don’t enjoy the elasticity of credit that upholds modern financial systems.

“Stablecoins are at a crossroads. On one hand, they’ve gone from niche crypto tools to serious considerations by legacy financial institutions,” PYMNTS wrote Thursday. “On the other, they continue to fail the basic tests of stability, acceptability, trust and utility.”

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