Bits

One Bit is worth a cent to the streamer, so a hundred-Bit cheer pays a dollar. Viewers pay more than that when buying, and Twitch takes its margin at the point of purchase instead of at payout, with bulk purchases costing less per Bit. Cheering is public and appears in chat with an emote whose size scales with the amount, which is why it works as a status signal as much as a tip. The nearest YouTube equivalent is Super Chat, though Super Chat is priced directly in currency with no intermediate token to buy first.