Seizing the Stablecoin Track - Stripe and Paradigm Bet on Tempo Behind the Scenes

Deng Tong, Golden Finance

According to multiple informed sources, payment giant Stripe is accelerating its layout in the blockchain field with a new project called Tempo, appointing Matt Huang, co-founder and managing partner of the crypto venture capital 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 these two giant companies value Tempo so much?

1. What is the Tempo project?

Tempo, developed in collaboration with fintech giant Stripe and crypto venture firm Paradigm, is an EVM-compatible Layer 1 public blockchain. It uses the same programming language as Ethereum, allowing developers to directly migrate existing smart contracts, thus lowering the technical barrier. Its design goal is to support high-frequency, low-latency payment transactions, particularly focusing on real-time settlement of stablecoins and cross-border payment scenarios, aiming to bypass traditional intermediaries like Visa and Mastercard through blockchain technology, significantly reducing transaction costs and improving efficiency.

The project is currently in a low-key development phase and consists of a team 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 have collaborated to develop Tempo.

With convenient online checkout and business automated invoicing payment products, Stripe's valuation has grown to nearly $92 billion. In recent years, Stripe has also set its sights on the cryptocurrency sector: in October 2024, Stripe acquired the stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge for $1.1 billion. Bridge supports businesses in issuing and managing stablecoins, while Tempo directly connects 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 through email or social accounts. Tempo is deeply integrated with Privy to create a "wallet - chain - payment" closed loop, allowing users to directly pay merchants with stablecoins through the Stripe wallet in the future, 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 access a large volume of enterprise users.

Paradigm, co-founded by former Sequoia Capital partner Matt Huang and Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam, is a leader in the cryptocurrency venture capital space. As of 2024, the firm manages assets totaling $12.7 billion and has invested in some of the industry's top projects, including the decentralized cryptocurrency exchange Uniswap, the prediction market Kalshi, and the cryptocurrency infrastructure company Fireblocks. Paradigm has a history of incubating proprietary projects like Tempo, including the Ethereum developer toolkit Foundry and the open-source crypto bot Artemis. Paradigm's expertise and rich industry resources will be directed towards Tempo to support its rapid growth.

3. Why are the two giant companies paying so much attention to Tempo?

The answer is that Tempo can help Stripe and Paradigm win the stablecoin landing battle.

In July 2025, the United States passed the GENIUS Act, providing a clearer legal framework for stablecoin regulation, eliminating the regulatory vacuum surrounding stablecoin payments. Major players have seized the regulatory trends and are diving into the competition for stablecoins.

Stripe is betting on this stablecoin competition through Tempo. The launch of Tempo marks Stripe's official transition from a payment intermediary to a foundational builder of blockchain technology. By mastering stablecoin issuance (Bridge), wallet access (Privy), and transaction settlement (Tempo), Stripe will create a complete payment ecosystem that fundamentally changes traditional payment processes.

Direct control over stablecoin issuance, wallet access, and transaction settlement can reduce Stripe's 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, thus consolidating and expanding market share. In addition, Stripe has a broad user base that includes many businesses and individual users, and the launch of Tempo can provide these users with more innovative payment solutions to meet payment needs in various scenarios, further enhancing user stickiness.

For Paradigm, although it is a top venture capital firm in the cryptocurrency industry, its experience in building its own blockchain projects still needs to be accumulated, and Tempo is a great attempt. Tempo is not a short-term speculative project, but a long-cycle enterprise-level payment network. Tempo not only handles retail transfers but also develops payment infrastructure for targeted clients. This strategic direction aligns with Paradigm's long-term value investment. If Tempo's attempt is successful, Paradigm will attract more companies similar to Tempo for collaboration, and this partnership with payment giant Stripe will help further solidify its investment resources and influence 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 (a social media data analysis and trend forecasting company), 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 he began to make strides in the cryptocurrency-related field.
• In 2018, Matt Huang co-founded the investment firm Paradigm focused on cryptocurrency and blockchain with Fred Ehrsam.

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, his extensive resources accumulated over the years in the crypto industry can provide maximum support for Tempo. Additionally, because Matt Huang also serves as a board member of Stripe and the first CEO of Tempo, the three companies are highly interconnected through Matt Huang, which can promote collaboration between the companies and expedite the implementation of the Tempo project.