Can we use an exchange as a wallet for payouts?

It is very important to note that an exchange address is not a valid address unless it is of the type that enables you to hold the private key yourself (decentralized exchange). See article How do I hold USDC? What is a valid address or compatible wallet?

In most cases, you do not control the private keys from the deposit address of the centralized exchanges, so all the funds in such an account are under the exclusive control of the exchange. This means that they can decide whether they will allow you to access any tokens you deposit there or not.

Since the deposit address is disposable, the exchange could also change it at any time without further notice, thus funds sent to an old deposit address after such a change could be lost.

Most of the exchanges use a separate deposit addresses for every token and if you send USDC to a deposit address meant for a different token or network, it could be lost. Exchanges post warnings about this on their deposit addresses so you may have no recourse if you ignore the warning and deposit USDC to the wrong exchange deposit address anyway.

If you are a EU resident, you will be eligible to confirm the source address of funds due to MiCA changes, due to this mandatory requirement it's not possible for you to use the exchange address as your wallet address in the node's configuration at all, see the relarted thread on the forum.

We will not be able to assist to recover USDC if you have any problems with an exchange; in order to recover tokens, you will have to file a support ticket directly with the help desk of the exchange in question.