Stripe and Paradigm Unveil Tempo Blockchain for Global Stablecoin Payments

Highlights:

• Tempo Blockchain aims at stablecoin payments with over 100k TPS and sub-second finality.
• Tempo was created by Stripe and Paradigm with design features contributed by Visa, OpenAI, and Shopify.
• The network allows transaction fees in any stablecoin through an integrated AMM.

Stripe and Paradigm have unveiled a new blockchain network specifically for payments. The project, referred to as Tempo Blockchain, is currently under a private testnet. The network is centered around stablecoin transactions and real-world financial use cases.

Stripe CEO Patrick Collison called the project a payments-oriented layer 1 and designedit  to be used at a high scale. He also disclosed that Tempo is operating as an independent firm, with its initial investors being Stripe and Paradigm.

Introducing @Tempo.

At Stripe, we care about high-throughput, low-latency payments use cases. As the use of stablecoins (and crypto more broadly) grows across Stripe, Bridge, and Privy, we found that existing blockchains are not optimized for them.

For example, it's valuable…

— Patrick Collison (@patrickc) September 4, 2025

This move comes after Stripe has increasingly grown their interest in digital payments. The company acquired the stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge last year at a price of $1.1 billion. Moreover, it bought crypto wallet company Privy earlier this year.

Tempo Blockchain Designed for Speed and Stablecoins

The Tempo Blockchain is being designed for high throughput and instant settlement. According to project documentation, the chain plans to achieve over 100,000 transactions per second at sub-second finality. In addition, its architecture supports fee and gas payments in any stablecoin that has a corresponding automated market maker.

Other features include payment-specific lanes, support for memos, and access lists. Users also have the ability to select optional privacy settings for their transactions. Moreover, the chain uses Reth, an execution client of Ethereum, so the chain is compatible with Ethereum smart contracts and developer tools.

Matt Huang, the co-founder of Paradigm, is the leader of the Tempo team. He noted that the network is specifically for stablecoins and global financial flows. According to Huang, the existing blockchain infrastructure prefers trading, but Tempo is directly dedicated to payment use cases.

Design partners already include big players around the world. Companies like OpenAI, Shopify, Deutsche Bank, Visa, and Revolut are just some of the contributors. Furthermore, a number of these partners are experimenting with validator roles in the early phase. Over time, the network wants to move from curated validators to an open permissionless model.

Global Applications and Market Opportunity

The Tempo Blockchain is a solution with a wide range of financial applications. These include tokenized deposits, e-commerce payments, microtransactions, cross-border payouts, remittances, and payroll. Collison said the network can also be used to facilitate new ideas, such as agentic payments.

Furthermore, Tempo maintains a stablecoin neutrality approach. This allows issuers to deploy their tokens without preference and therefore, allows them to participate in settlement flows more broadly. Visa’s Chief Product and Strategy Officer, Jack Forestell, emphasized that the future is multi-chain and expressed the role of Visa in facilitating interoperability.

Excited to be involved with @Tempo from day one, helping shape blockchain infrastructure purpose-built for payments.

The future is multi-chain: stablecoins will operate across diverse blockchain networks and Visa is enabling interoperability between chains and stablecoin brands.… https://t.co/dM2wKAlvQE

— Jack Forestell (@jackforestell) September 4, 2025

The network’s announcement comes as stablecoins see continued rapid growth. The sector currently accounts for a $270 billion market and is projected to exceed $1 trillion. Moreover, competitors are also advancing fast. Circle recently announced Arc, another layer 1 that is focused on stablecoin transactions. The very same day as the reveal of Tempo, Fireblocks launched its own stablecoin network.

The project is given credibility by the participation of Stripe. With their experience in global payments and previous acquisitions in the crypto space, the company is positioning Tempo as a solution for mainstream adoption. In addition, Paradigm has extensive experience in cryptoeconomics, which forms the basis for the technical direction of the network.