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Deng Tong, Bitchain Vision
According to several people familiar with the matter, payment giant Stripe is accelerating its layout in the new project in the blockchain field, 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 the Stripe Board of Directors and will continue to serve as a managing partner of Paradigm.
What is Tempo project?What can Stripe and Paradigm bring to Tempo?Why do the two giant companies attach so much importance to Tempo?
1. What is Tempo project?
Developed by fintech giant Stripe and crypto venture capital firm Paradigm, Tempo is a Layer 1 public chain compatible with EVM (Ethereum virtual machine).Adopting the same programming language as Ethereum allows developers to directly migrate existing smart contracts and lower the technical threshold.Its design goal is to support high-frequency and low-latency payment transactions, especially focusing on the real-time settlement and cross-border payment scenarios of stablecoins. It aims to bypass traditional intermediaries such as Visa and Mastercard through blockchain technology, significantly reduce transaction costs and improve efficiency.
The project is currently in a low-key development state, with a team composed of five people.It is not clear 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 payment products such as convenient online checkout and enterprise automatic invoice billing, Stripe’s valuation has grown to nearly $92 billion.In recent years, Stripe has set its sights on the cryptocurrency field: In October 2024, Stripe acquired Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure company for US$1.1 billion. Bridge supports enterprises to issue and manage stablecoins, and Tempo directly connects to this system to realize the circulation and settlement of stablecoins on the chain; in June 2025, Stripe acquired Privy, a developer of embedded crypto wallets, and users can quickly create wallets through email or social accounts.Tempo and Privy are deeply integrated to create a closed loop of “wallet-chain-payment”. In the future, users can directly pay merchants with stablecoins through Stripe wallets, and the entire transaction process will be completed on Tempo.Stripe provides Tempo with its global merchant network, payment risk control system and compliance capabilities to help Tempo quickly access massive enterprise users.
Founded by former Sequoia Capital partner Matt Huang and Coinbase co-founder Fred Ehrsam, Paradigm is a leader in cryptocurrency venture capital.As of 2024, the company managed $12.7 billion in assets and invested in some of the industry’s top projects, including decentralized cryptocurrency exchange Uniswap, forecast market Kalshi, and cryptocurrency infrastructure company Fireblocks.Paradigm has always had experience in incubating Tempo-like own projects, including the Ethereum development toolbox Foundry and the open source encryption robot Artemis.Paradigm’s expertise and rich industry resources will tilt towards Tempo to help Tempo develop rapidly.
3. Why do the two giant companies attach so much importance to Tempo?
The answer is that Tempo can help Stripe and Paradigm win the stablecoin beach landing 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 a regulatory vacuum.The giants have followed the regulatory trends and joined the wave of stablecoin competition.
Stripe bets on this stablecoin competition through Tempo.The launch of Tempo marks Stripe’s formal shift from a payment intermediary to the underlying builder of blockchain technology.By controlling stablecoin issuance (Bridge), wallet portal (Privy) and transaction settlement (Tempo), Stripe will form a complete payment ecosystem and completely change the traditional payment process.
Direct control of stablecoin issuance, wallet entrance and transaction settlement processes can allow Stripe to reduce its dependence on traditional banking networks and third-party payment and clearing institutions, thereby reducing operating costs.At the same time, Tempo supports high-frequency and low-latency payment transactions, as well as real-time settlement and cross-border payments of stablecoins, which can significantly improve user payment experience, attract more merchants and consumers to use their payment services, and consolidate and expand market share.In addition, Stripe has a wide user base, covering many corporate and individual users. The launch of Tempo can provide these users with more innovative payment solutions to meet the payment needs in different scenarios and further enhance user stickiness.
For Paradigm, although Paradigm is a top venture capital firm in the crypto industry, its experience in building its own blockchain projects still needs to be accumulated, and Tempo is a good attempt.Tempo is not a short-term hype project, but a long-term enterprise-level payment network.Tempo not only does retail transfers, but also provides payment infrastructure for targeted customers.This layout direction is in line with Paradigm’s long-term value investment.If Tempo’s attempt is successful, Paradigm will attract more companies similar to Tempo to cooperate with it, and this cooperation with payment giant Stripe will help further consolidate its investment resources and voice in the blockchain world.
4. Appendix: Who is Matt Huang?
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In 2010, Matt Huang graduated from MIT with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics.
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In 2010, Matt Huang founded Hotspots (Social Media Data Analytics and Trend Forecasting), a company that was supported by Y Combinator and was acquired by Twitter in 2012.
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From 2014 to 2018, Matt Huang worked at Sequoia Capital as a partner and had already begun to make some arrangements in cryptocurrency-related fields.
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In 2018, Matt Huang and Fred Ehrsam jointly founded Paradigm, an investment institution focused on encryption and blockchain.
Matt Huang has a unique investment vision and has invested in startups including ByteDance, Instacart, Amplitude, Benchling and PlanGrid.As the co-founder of Paradigm, the extensive crypto industry resources accumulated over the years can provide maximum support to Tempo.And because Matt Huang also serves as a member of the board of directors of Stripe and the first CEO of Tempo, the three companies are highly bound by Matt Huang, which can promote collaboration among companies and realize the implementation of the Tempo project faster.
