Deng Tong, Golden Finance
According to multiple sources familiar with the matter, payment giant Stripe is accelerating the layout of its new blockchain project Tempo, appointing Matt Huang, co-founder and managing partner of crypto venture capital firm Paradigm, as Tempo's first CEO. Huang is also a member of Stripe's board of directors and will continue to serve as Paradigm's managing partner.
What is Tempo? What can Stripe and Paradigm bring to Tempo? Why are these two giant companies so focused on Tempo?
1. What is Tempo?
Tempo, developed in collaboration between fintech giant Stripe and crypto venture capital firm Paradigm, is an EVM (Ethereum Virtual Machine)-compatible Layer 1 public blockchain. Using the same programming language as Ethereum, it allows developers to directly migrate existing smart contracts, lowering the technical barrier to entry. It is designed to support high-frequency, low-latency payment transactions, with a particular focus on real-time settlement of stablecoins and cross-border payments. By leveraging blockchain technology, it aims to significantly reduce transaction costs and improve efficiency by bypassing traditional intermediaries like Visa and Mastercard.
The project is currently under development with a five-person team, and it is unclear whether it will issue its own native token.
What can Stripe and Paradigm bring to Tempo?
Stripe and Paradigm partnered to develop Tempo.
Stripe's valuation has grown to nearly $92 billion thanks to its convenient online checkout and automated invoicing for businesses. In recent years, Stripe has also set its sights on the cryptocurrency sector. In October 2024, Stripe acquired Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure company, for $1.1 billion. Bridge supports businesses in issuing and managing stablecoins, and Tempo directly integrates with this system to enable stablecoin circulation and settlement on-chain. In June 2025, Stripe acquired Privy, a developer of embedded crypto wallets that allows users to quickly create wallets via email or social media accounts. Tempo's deep integration with Privy will create a closed "wallet-chain-payment" loop. Users will be able to pay merchants with stablecoins directly through their Stripe wallets, with transactions completed entirely on Tempo. Stripe provides Tempo with access to its global merchant network, payment risk management systems, and compliance capabilities, enabling Tempo to quickly onboard a large number of enterprise users.
Paradigm, co-founded by former Sequoia Capital partner Matt Huang and Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam, is a leading cryptocurrency venture capital firm. As of 2024, the firm manages $12.7 billion in assets and has invested in leading projects, including the decentralized cryptocurrency exchange Uniswap, the prediction market Kalshi, and the cryptocurrency infrastructure company Fireblocks. Paradigm has a history of incubating its own projects, such as Tempo, including the Ethereum development toolkit Foundry and the open-source crypto bot Artemis. Paradigm's expertise and extensive industry resources will be leveraged by Tempo to support its rapid growth.
3. Why do these two giant companies attach so much importance 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. Stablecoin payments are no longer a regulatory vacuum. Major financial giants have taken note of these regulatory trends and jumped into the stablecoin race.
Stripe is betting on the stablecoin race with Tempo. The launch of Tempo marks Stripe's official transition from a payment intermediary to a foundational builder of blockchain technology. By controlling stablecoin issuance (Bridge), wallet access (Privy), and transaction settlement (Tempo), Stripe aims to form a complete payment ecosystem, fundamentally transforming the traditional payment process.
Direct control over stablecoin issuance, wallet access, and transaction settlement will allow Stripe to reduce its reliance on traditional banking networks and third-party payment clearinghouses, thereby lowering operating costs. Tempo also supports high-frequency, low-latency payment transactions, as well as real-time settlement and cross-border payments for stablecoins. This significantly enhances the user payment experience, attracting more merchants and consumers to its payment services and consolidating and expanding its market share. Furthermore, Stripe's user base is broad, encompassing a wide range of businesses and individuals. The launch of Tempo will provide these users with more innovative payment solutions, meeting payment needs in diverse scenarios and further strengthening user engagement.
For Paradigm, despite being a top venture capital firm in the crypto industry, it still needs to build experience in building its own blockchain projects. Tempo is a promising example. Tempo is not a short-term hype project, but a long-term enterprise-grade payment network. Tempo not only provides retail money transfers but also provides payment infrastructure for specialized clients. This strategy aligns with Paradigm's long-term value investment strategy. If Tempo's success is successful, Paradigm will attract more companies like Tempo to collaborate with it. This partnership with payment giant Stripe will further consolidate its investment resources and influence in the blockchain world.
IV. Appendix: Who is Matt Huang?
Matt Huang graduated from MIT in 2010 with a bachelor's degree in mathematics.
In 2010, Matt Huang founded Hotspots (social media data analysis and trend prediction), which was backed by Y Combinator and acquired by Twitter in 2012.
From 2014 to 2018, Matt Huang worked as a partner at Sequoia Capital, where he had already begun to make investments in cryptocurrency-related fields.
In 2018, Matt Huang and Fred Ehrsam co-founded Paradigm, an investment firm focused on encryption and blockchain.
Matt Huang possesses a unique investment vision, having invested in startups including ByteDance, Instacart, Amplitude, Benchling, and PlanGrid. As co-founder of Paradigm, his extensive crypto industry experience over the years provides significant support for Tempo. Furthermore, Matt Huang's role as a Stripe board member and Tempo's founding CEO creates a strong bond between the three companies, fostering collaboration and accelerating the implementation of Tempo's projects.