Tempo Research Report: Payment Layer-1 created by Stripe and Paradigm

Introduction to Tempo Public Chain

Tempo is a Layer-1 blockchain project jointly incubated and launched by payment giant Stripe and crypto investment institution Paradigm in September 2025, focusing on stablecoins and real-world payment scenarios..As a “payment-first” public chain, Tempo aims to challenge existing blockchains and traditional payment networks to provide high-performance and low-cost infrastructure for high-frequency financial services such as cross-border payments and e-commerce transactions.Tempo’s design combines Stripe’s extensive experience in the global payment field and Paradigm’s blockchain technology expertise. It is positioned to become a dedicated chain for large-scale applications of stablecoins, providing enterprises and ordinary users withFaster, cheaper, and compliant and friendly payment network.

Core features: Tempo’s official announcement and technical details show that it has a number of innovations for payment optimization:

• Super high performance: Tempo uses a dedicated architecture to implementMore than 100,000 pens per second (TPS)processing capability.This makes its throughput far exceed the current mainstream public chain (even the high-performance Solana test is at the 50,000 TPS level), and can match or even surpass the scale of traditional payment networks such as Visa..

• Stablecoin payment neutral: Tempo supports useAny stablecoinPay Gas fees and built-in automatic market makers (AMMs) for seamless exchange between different stablecoins.Users and enterprises can use the network without holding native tokens, which ensures predictability of transaction costs (stable in fiat currency) and avoids the uncertainty caused by on-chain handling fees due to fluctuations in currency prices..The design was described by Stripe CEO Patrick Collison as “denominated with stablecoins, thus achieving absolute cost certainty”.

• EVM compatible: Tempo is built on the Ethereum client Reth, completelyEVM compatible.Developers can write smart contracts with Solidity and easily migrate dApps on Ethereum to the Tempo chain.This lays the foundation for Tempo to attract developers and applications of the Ethereum ecosystem, while reducing the learning and migration costs of new chains.

• Enterprise-level design: Tempo has made special designs in compliance and privacy in response to the needs of enterprises and financial institutions.On-chain transaction supportBulk transfer(More efficient when paying wages in bulk or supplier payments), Memo comment fields are compatibleISO 20022Financial message standards can be connected with the existing bank system to improve reconciliation efficiency.At the same time, built-in on-chainCompliance hook, such as whitelist/blacklist mechanisms, facilitate regulated entities to meet anti-money laundering (AML) and understanding customer (KYC) requirements.In addition, Tempo providesOptional privacy transactionsFunction to ensure data confidentiality of enterprises when processing sensitive payments on public chains.These enterprise-level features are designed to eliminate pain points when traditional institutions adopt blockchain.

• Decentralization and security: Although Tempo was initially developed by Stripe and Paradigm and inPrivate Test NetworkChina has jointly tested with its partners, but its goal is to gradually move towards complete decentralization.The project plans to introduce aMultiple independent validator collections(including early participating design partners) to maintain the network, and the consensus mechanism transitions from licensing to permissionless, thus ensuring the security and trustless properties of the chain.In other words, Tempo will not be controlled by a single company for a long time, but instead hopes to enhance network reliability by introducing multi-party participation.

• Ecological support: Behind the birth of Tempo is strongly supported by industrial resources.Stripe and Paradigm are the initial investors, and Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang directly leads the Tempo team (about 15 people) to promote development.More importantly, Tempo has cooperated with many industry leaders since the design stage to provide scenario input and testing, including Visa, Shopify, Anthropic, Deutsche Bank, OpenAI, Mercury, DoorDash, Revolut, Nubank, Standard Chartered, etc.Stripe Merchant Network and Partners.The participation of these partners has brought calibration of real-life business needs to Tempo, and is expected to quickly import a large number of enterprise-level application scenarios after its main network is launched.

background

The emergence of Tempo is in line with major trends in the stablecoin market and policy environment in 2025.On the one hand, stablecoins are accelerating to the mainstream: as of mid-2025, the total market value of global stablecoins has been approximately$280 billion, significantly increased from the beginning of the year.Mainstream institutions predict that this scale will approach the trillion-dollar level in the next few years, and stablecoins are becoming an important carrier for cross-border remittances, digital payments and a powerful supplement to traditional financial networks..

On the other hand, the regulatory level has gradually become clear: the United States passed the first federal stablecoin bill in 2025GENIUS Act(The “Guide and Establish a National Innovation Unified Stable Coin Act”) requires that payment stablecoins must be supported by cash or equivalent reserves 1:1.The implementation of the bill provides compliance guidance and policy endorsement for the stablecoin industry, greatly boosting institutions’ confidence in stablecoins, and triggering companies including Circle and Tether to launch their own chains to seize the opportunity of future stablecoin payment infrastructure..

In this context, Tempo can be regarded as a challenge launched by Stripe in the payment field by relying on its own payment network advantages and Paradigm’s technical strength to SWIFT, Visa and other traditional payment systems, as well as the current general public chain.Tempo emphasizes the design of business-friendly and regulatory compliance, which is highly consistent with the market environment in 2025, making it a focus of capital and industry observers.

The impact of Tempo on Ethereum Layer-2

The existing Layer-2 networks in the Ethereum ecosystem (such as Arbitrum, Optimism, Base, etc.) have improved the main chain throughput and reduced handling fees through Rollup technology, and have achieved rapid development in recent years.As of press time (20250905), the total locked position of Ethereum L2 is510$100 million, developing rapidly.As a brand new high-performance L1 public chain, Tempo will inevitably have an impact on these Ethereum expansion solutions, which are reflected in the following aspects:

Competitive pressure:

• Performance comparison: Tempo’s claimed “100,000 TPS and sub-second confirmation speeds are significantly higher than the current mainstream L2 performance indicators.For example, Arbitrum officially revealed that the theoretical TPS cap is tens of thousands, while Optimism and others are even lower.This means that in payment scenarios where extreme throughput is required, Tempo may be more attractive than L2.For enterprise users, Tempo provides speed and capacity close to the Web2 payment system, which is expected to meet the needs of large-scale commercial applications, which creates direct competition for L2.

• Cost structure: Ethereum L2 usually relies on Ethereum main chain settlement. Although the Gas fee is much cheaper than L1 (usually a transaction fee is only about a few cents), it still fluctuates due to the busyness of the main chain.Tempo allows direct use of stablecoins to pay a fixed low handling fee, and since it does not require reliance on main link settlement, its fees are even moreLow and stable.In Gas cost-sensitive applications (such as micropayment, in-game transactions), Tempo’s cost advantage will challenge the attractiveness of L2.Especially when Ethereum network is congested and L2 submission costs increase, Tempo’s advantages will become more obvious.

• Competitive customer competition: Base and other L2 have begun to target the corporate market (such as Coinbase actively expands institutional cooperation after launching Base). According to statistics, Base has occupied about a quarter of the market in the L2 field after months of its launch..With compliance and privacy features, as well as Stripe’s huge merchant base, Tempo has inherent advantages in striving for corporate customers.Companies that require more stringent compliance and high-frequency stablecoin settlement may be more willing to choose Tempo to divert enterprise applications and funds that might have been deployed on L2.

Complementarity:

• Eco-compatibility: Although Tempo is an independent chain, it has good interoperability with the Ethereum and L2 ecosystems due to its EVM compatibility attributes.Developers can easily deploy existing Ethereum smart contracts to Tempo, and even take advantage of L2 and Tempo in a multi-chain architecture (for example, L2 carries the DeFi protocol, and Tempo handles high-frequency payments).This compatibility to a certain extentLower barriers to competition, providing possibilities for cooperation between the two parties.Stripe expresses hope TempoReplenishExisting general blockchain infrastructure, not direct competition.Therefore, we may see some cross-chain bridges or middleware in the future, making the flow of assets and messages between Tempo and Ethereum mainnet/L2 smoother.

• Liquidity impact: If Tempo is adopted by a large number of institutions, the circulation and transaction volume of its on-chain stablecoins will increase rapidly.This may attract some stablecoinsLiquidity transfer from Ethereum L2to Tempo.

• Cross-chain collaboration: The emergence of Tempo highlights the coexistence of multiple chains.In order to retain users and funds, Ethereum L2 may need to strengthen its new chains with TempoCross-chain interoperability.This includes developing safer and more efficient bridging solutions, protocols that share liquidity, and so on.Ideally, Tempo can be used as a payment highway and L2 as a smart contract park. The two can guide each other and take advantage of each other’s strengths.But in the long run, if each chain has its own special application field, it may also lead to users and development resources.Dispersed (fragmented).

The impact of Tempo on other Layer-1 public chains

In addition to Ethereum, there are also public chains such as Solana and Avalanche that focus on high-performance or specific fields, as well as dedicated chains recently launched by enterprises.The advent of Tempo also has competition and impact on these Layer-1 projects:

Solana

Solana has always been known for its high-performance single chain (theoretical TPS can reach 50,000+, no sharding is required on the chain), and advocates the vision of “one chain carries all applications”.However, the emergence of Tempo provides another path: independent chains optimized specifically for payment scenarios.This poses several challenges to Solana:

• Concept narrative: Tempo emphasizes dedicated chains customized for payments, which somewhat undermines what Solana advocatesUniversal unified chainNarrative.When considering large-scale payments, corporate users may become interested in “using a chain that specializes in payments” and no longer fully agree with Solana’s “one-chain-win situation” model.

• <p   list”,{“type”:”ul”,”style”:”list-style-type: disc”,”class”:”list-paddingleft-1″,”start”:null},”listitem”,null]’>Corporate Resources: Stripe’s own huge merchant network and partner resources have brought potential users and application implementation channels to Tempo.In contrast, although Solana has a certain ecological foundation in the crypto-native community, it lacks similar endorsements in traditional finance and corporate circles.Stripe’s supportThis means that Tempo has natural advantages in winning banks, payment institutions, e-commerce platforms, etc., which may turn some companies that might have chosen Solana to Tempo.<p   list”,{“type”:”ul”,”style”:”list-style-type: disc”,”class”:”list-paddingleft-1″,”start”:null},”listitem”,null]’>

• Stablecoin competition: Up to now, the Solana chain mainly uses USDC and USDT as trading media, but the Gas fee still needs to be paid by SOL.Tempo’s stablecoin neutral design is more flexible when handling multi-currency payments, and can directly complete payments no matter which stablecoin the user holds..This convenience is more attractive to businesses that focus on payment experiences, and may suck up some of the stablecoin trading activities that originally occurred on Solana.

Other enterprise-level L1 projects (such as Circle’s Arc, etc.)

Another significant trend in 2025 isLarge financial technology companies build their own chains.In addition to Stripe’s Tempo, USDC issuer Circle announced their dedicated link in August 2025Arc, mainly serving cross-chain transfer and payment of stablecoins such as USDC;Tether is also reportedly developing a stablecoin public chain called Plasma.For these enterprise chains with similar positioning, Tempo constitutes a direct competitive relationship:

• Head-on competition: Both Circle Arc and Tempo focus on stablecoin payment infrastructure, and both emphasize high performance and low cost.The difference is that Arc is more focused on the USDC ecosystem, while Tempo claims stablecoins are neutral to support multiple assets.From an enterprise perspective, which chain to choose may depend on the partnership and specific needs.For example, financial institutions may participate in both Arc and Tempo pilots to see which chain is more mature.Tempo needs to be ahead of competitors such as Arc in competing for partners and market recognition in order to win in the “enterprise chain” track.

• Risk of fragmentation: If more and more companies launch their own dedicated chains (Stripe’s Tempo, Circle’s Arc, and even Visa/Mastercard may follow up in the future), the blockchain ecosystem may experience funds and users being separated from different networks.Stablecoin issuers each build a chain, which provides optimization services for their respective customers in the short term, but may reduce the overall situation in the long term.Network Effect.One challenge Tempo faces is how to avoid becoming “another island.”To this end, Tempo has emphasized interoperability and neutrality, hoping to connect different stablecoins through built-in AMMs and establish bridge relationships with multiple parties to alleviate fragmentation problems..However, from a macro perspective, the coexistence of multiple payment chains will still make the user experience more complicated, which is also a trade-off that the entire industry needs to weigh.

Macro impact prospects

The launch of Tempo not only affects a single project or ecosystem, but also represents an industry trend and will trigger the following thinking at the macro level:

• The rise of self-built chains in enterprises: From Tempo, Arc and other cases, it can be seen that leading companies are trying to buildCustomized blockchainto meet your own and customer needs.This trend may weaken the network effect of traditional general public chains and instead form multiple chains dominated by large institutions.For investors, this paradigm shift needs to be paid attention to: In the future, the blockchain industry may have both community-driven general chains and enterprise-driven dedicated chains, and both of them will develop in parallel.

• Stablecoin Ecological Diversification: Tempo’s stablecoin neutral design encourages various stablecoins to coexist on its network, which is beneficialMultiple competition in the stablecoin market.Plus the brightness of regulation (such as GENIUS Act emphasizes 1:1 reserves and transparency), stablecoins are gradually being regarded as legal payment carriers.In 2025, the supply of stablecoin surged, and the market size reached a new highProjects such as Tempo will further promote the expansion of stablecoins from a medium of transactions to daily payment tools.This is also an impact and opportunity for the traditional banking system – banks may accelerate their exploration of self-issued stablecoins or access to on-chain payment networks to cope with this change.

• Interoperability and fragmentation coexist: With the increase of dedicated chains, the blockchain world may be more fragmented than before in the short term – users and assets are distributed on different networks.However, this also strongly promotedCross-chain interoperabilityDevelopment of technology.If new chains like Tempo are to be successful, they must cooperate well with existing mainstream chains, including breakthroughs in areas such as asset bridging and secure communication protocols.This in turn may benefit the entire industry and improve user experience in a multi-chain environment.In the future, we may see that cross-chain message protocols, full-chain wallets and other infrastructures are valued by investors and developers.In general, the challenges of fragmentation and the need for interoperability will become the new driving force behind the evolution of blockchain technology.

Summarize

As a high-performance, payment-oriented public chain, Tempo embodies Stripe’s resource advantages in the payment field and Paradigm’s cutting-edge concepts in blockchain technology.It proposes a systematic solution to the pain points of blockchain in the payment scenario: extremely high TPS and fast final certainty guarantee transaction experience, stablecoin denomination fees and built-in AMMs to achieve seamless multi-asset payments, and enterprise-level compliance and privacy features eliminate the concerns of institutional links.Tempo is expected to compete with traditional networks in cross-border remittances, supply chain finance, salary payment and other scenarios, and also opens new applications for the crypto industry.

For Ethereum’s Layer-2 project, Tempo is both a competitor and a potential partner – its performance and cost advantages will divert some payment applications, but its EVM compatibility and neutral positioning may complement the existing ecosystem.Ethereum L2 needs to continue to improve its own technology, deepen its differentiation field, and seek interoperability to meet this new challenge.For other public chains such as Solana, Tempo offers a different development paradigm, namely “dedicated chains and dedicated”, which may prompt them to reflect on their own positioning or speed up the pace of upgrading to avoid being overtaken on specific tracks.At the same time, the addition of enterprise chains such as Circle Arc has made the competitive landscape more complex and proved that blockchain infrastructure is moving towards a new stage of industrialization and diversification.

From a broader perspective, the emergence of Tempo marks the entry of the blockchain industryPayment scenarios are implementedThe new turning point: stablecoins, as a bridge to anchor the value of fiat currency, are receiving unprecedented attention; various types of capital and giants participate in infrastructure construction, will accelerate the integration of blockchain into the mainstream financial system.In the next few years, who can win in performance, compliance and ecology will dominate the standards of the new generation of payment networks.The expected success of Tempo depends on the adoption of its partners from the test network to the mainnet process and the verification of real scenarios.For investors, this is not only a story about focusing on a certain chain, but also a witness to the overall situation of the integration of traditional finance and blockchain and the iteration of payment revolution.If Tempo succeeds, it will strengthen the market confidence of “blockchain empowers real payments”; even if it faces challenges, the competition it triggers will drive the entire industry to evolve towards higher efficiency and better user experience.