Stripe and Paradigm have unveiled Tempo, a payments-focused blockchain designed to handle high-volume financial services applications. The project, now in private testnet, represents Stripe’s most significant move yet into blockchain and digital payments.
Stripe CEO Patrick Collison announced the initiative on X, describing Tempo as “the payments-oriented L1, optimized for high-scale, real-world financial services applications.” He emphasized that Tempo will operate as an independent company, with Stripe and Paradigm serving as its first investors.
Introducing @Tempo.
— Patrick Collison (@patrickc) September 4, 2025
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.
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Stripe’s Expanding Crypto Footprint
The launch of Tempo follows a string of crypto-related moves by Stripe. In October 2024, the fintech giant acquired Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure firm, for $1.1 billion. Earlier this year, Stripe also acquired Privy, a crypto wallet company, and partnered with Coinbase, integrating Coinbase’s Base Layer 2 network into its payment offerings.
These steps highlight Stripe’s growing interest in digital asset infrastructure and its strategy to bridge traditional payments with blockchain technology.
Early Partnerships and Use Cases
Collison noted that Tempo is already working with major companies including Anthropic, Deutsche Bank, DoorDash, Nubank, OpenAI, Revolut, and Shopify. The aim, he said, is to make on-chain transactions more accessible across a wide range of use cases—such as payment acceptance, global payouts, remittances, microtransactions, tokenized deposits, and agent-driven payments.
Paradigm co-founder and managing partner Matt Huang, who is leading the Tempo team, explained that the blockchain is designed specifically for stablecoins and real-world payments.
“As stablecoins go mainstream, there’s a need for optimized infrastructure,” Huang said. “Tempo is purpose-built for stablecoins and real-world payments, born from Stripe’s experience in global payments and Paradigm’s expertise in crypto.”
Introducing @tempo
— Matt Huang (@matthuang) September 4, 2025
A payments-first blockchain incubated by Stripe and Paradigm
The Bigger Picture
With Tempo, Stripe appears to be positioning itself at the center of the intersection between traditional finance and blockchain-based payment systems. By combining its global payments expertise with Paradigm’s crypto know-how, the two firms are betting that stablecoin-focused infrastructure will play a key role in the next era of financial services.
