The $91.5B fintech and the crypto venture firm are building a new blockchain to power stablecoin payments, remittances, and AI-driven transactions.
Stripe and Paradigm have teamed up to launch Tempo, a Layer 1 blockchain designed specifically for stablecoin payments. The project, long rumored in Silicon Valley, was announced Thursday and marks Stripe’s most direct foray into crypto infrastructure.
Bonded by Paradigm’s co-founder and managing partner Matt Huang, who also sits on Stripe’s board, the venture already has 15 employees and has secured partnerships with Anthropic, OpenAI, Deutsche Bank, Shopify, and Revolut. Additional partners include Visa, Nubank, Coupang, DoorDash, Mercury, Standard Chartered, and Lead Bank.
Stripe, valued at $91.5 billion, brings a massive payments customer base to the project. In 2024, it processed over $1 trillion in transactions, positioning Tempo to gain traction with enterprises that until now have hesitated to engage with crypto. “We think of Tempo as the payments-oriented L1, optimized for high-scale, real-world financial services applications” Stripe co-founder Patrick Collison wrote on X.
Unlike most blockchains that issue native tokens, Tempo will not launch with its own cryptocurrency. Instead, it will rely on stablecoins such as USDC and Tether as “gas” for transaction fees, aligning with its payments-first focus.
Paradigm said Tempo will target use cases including global payouts, remittances, microtransactions, tokenized deposits, and agentic payments—transactions executed by AI agents. Crypto advocates argue these are areas where blockchain technology can prove essential.
Stripe incubated the project, but both firms emphasized that Tempo is designed to remain independent and “neutral.” Still, with Stripe and Paradigm as its first investors and customers including half the Fortune 500, Tempo is set to test whether a purpose-built payments blockchain can succeed where earlier networks have struggled.