Deng Tong, Golden Finance
According to multiple informed sources, payment giant Stripe is accelerating the layout of its new blockchain project Tempo and has appointed Matt Huang, co-founder and managing partner of crypto venture firm Paradigm, as the first CEO of Tempo. Huang is also a member of Stripe's board and will continue to serve as a managing partner at Paradigm.
What is the Tempo project? What can Stripe and Paradigm bring to Tempo? Why do the two giant companies pay so much attention to Tempo?
1. What is the Tempo project?
Tempo, developed in collaboration between fintech giant Stripe and crypto venture firm Paradigm, is a Layer 1 public chain compatible with EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine). It adopts the same programming language as Ethereum, allowing developers to migrate existing smart contracts directly, thus lowering technical barriers. Its design goal is to support high-frequency, low-latency payment transactions, especially focusing on real-time settlement of stablecoins and cross-border payment scenarios, aiming to bypass traditional intermediaries such as Visa and Mastercard through blockchain technology, significantly reducing transaction costs and improving efficiency.
The project is currently in a low-profile development state, and the team consists of five members. It is still unclear whether the project will issue its own native token.
2. What can Stripe and Paradigm bring to Tempo?
Stripe and Paradigm collaborated to develop Tempo.
With convenient online checkout and corporate automatic invoicing payment products, Stripe's valuation has grown to nearly $92 billion. In recent years, Stripe has also aimed at the cryptocurrency field: in October 2024, Stripe acquired the stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge for $1.1 billion. Bridge supports enterprises in issuing and managing stablecoins, and Tempo connects directly to this system, enabling the circulation and settlement of stablecoins on-chain; in June 2025, Stripe acquired embedded crypto wallet developer Privy, allowing users to quickly create wallets via email or social accounts. Tempo is deeply integrated with Privy to create a "wallet - chain - payment" closed loop, allowing users to pay merchants directly with stablecoins using the Stripe wallet, with the entire transaction completed on Tempo. Stripe provides Tempo with its global merchant network, payment risk control system, and compliance capabilities, helping Tempo quickly connect with a vast number of enterprise users.
Paradigm was co-founded by former Sequoia Capital partner Matt Huang and Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam and is a leader in the cryptocurrency venture capital field. As of 2024, the company manages assets totaling $12.7 billion and has invested in some top industry projects, including decentralized cryptocurrency exchange Uniswap, prediction market Kalshi, and cryptocurrency infrastructure company Fireblocks. Paradigm has always had experience incubating its own projects similar to Tempo, including the Ethereum development toolbox Foundry and the open-source crypto bot Artemis. Paradigm's expertise and rich industry resources will lean toward Tempo to help it grow rapidly.
3. Why do the two giant companies pay so much attention to Tempo?
The answer is that Tempo can help Stripe and Paradigm win the stablecoin beachhead battle.
In July 2025, the United States passed the GENIUS Act, providing a clearer legal framework for stablecoin regulation, and stablecoin payments are no longer in a regulatory vacuum. Major companies are seizing regulatory trends and diving into the stablecoin competition wave.
Stripe is betting on this stablecoin race through Tempo. The launch of Tempo marks Stripe's official shift from a payment intermediary to a foundational builder of blockchain technology. By controlling stablecoin issuance (Bridge), wallet access (Privy), and transaction settlement (Tempo), Stripe will form a complete payment ecosystem, fundamentally changing traditional payment processes.
Directly controlling stablecoin issuance, wallet access, and transaction settlement allows Stripe to reduce its reliance on traditional banking networks and third-party payment clearing institutions, thereby lowering operational costs. At the same time, Tempo supports high-frequency, low-latency payment transactions as well as real-time settlement and cross-border payments for stablecoins, significantly enhancing the user payment experience and attracting more merchants and consumers to use its payment services, consolidating and expanding market share. In addition, Stripe's user base is extensive, covering numerous enterprises and individual users, and the launch of Tempo can provide these users with more innovative payment solutions, meeting payment needs in different scenarios and further enhancing user stickiness.
For Paradigm, although Paradigm is a top venture capital institution in the cryptocurrency industry, its experience in building its own blockchain projects still needs to accumulate, and Tempo is a good attempt. Tempo is not a short-term speculative project but a long-term enterprise-level payment network. Tempo is not just about retail transfers; it will also create payment infrastructure for specific clients. This strategic direction aligns with Paradigm's long-term value investment. If Tempo's attempt succeeds, Paradigm will attract more companies similar to Tempo for collaboration, and this cooperation with the payment giant Stripe will further consolidate its investment resources and voice in the blockchain world.
4. Appendix: Who is Matt Huang?
In 2010, Matt Huang graduated from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with a bachelor's degree in mathematics.
In 2010, Matt Huang founded Hotspots (social media data analytics and trend prediction), which received support from Y Combinator and was acquired by Twitter in 2012.
From 2014 to 2018, Matt Huang worked as a partner at Sequoia Capital, during which time he began to make investments in the cryptocurrency sector.
In 2018, Matt Huang co-founded Paradigm, an investment firm focused on crypto and blockchain.
Matt Huang has a unique investment vision and has invested in startups including ByteDance, Instacart, Amplitude, Benchling, and PlanGrid. As a co-founder of Paradigm, he has accumulated extensive resources in the crypto industry over the years, which can provide maximum support for Tempo. Moreover, because Matt Huang also serves as a board member of Stripe and the first CEO of Tempo, the three companies achieve high binding through Matt Huang, which can promote collaboration between the companies and expedite the implementation of the Tempo project.