Tempo is a new Layer 1 blockchain jointly developed by fintech company Stripe and crypto venture capital firm Paradigm. Its core positioning is to provide dedicated infrastructure for large-scale payment scenarios. The project opened its public testnet in December this year and plans to launch its mainnet in 2026.
Tempo is not a general-purpose smart contract platform; its design is optimized from the ground up for the core scenario of "payments," aiming to address the high costs and inefficiencies faced by existing blockchains when supporting payment applications such as stablecoins.
Tempo is fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine, meaning developers can seamlessly migrate existing Ethereum tools and applications. One of its core innovations is the introduction of a native token standard called "TIP-20," designed specifically for stablecoins and payment tokens, and serving as the foundation for network fees, payment channels, and other functions.
Unlike most public chains, Tempo does not have a native token. Network transaction fees (including gas fees) can be paid directly using stablecoins, provided that the stablecoin is natively issued under the TIP-20 standard and has sufficient liquidity in the chain's fee AMM. The official has set a fixed base fee rate, rather than the dynamic model adopted by Ethereum's EIP-1559, with the goal of keeping the cost of a single TIP-20 transfer below $0.001. The fees are directly allocated to the block validators.
One of Tempo's core innovations is its native Tempo Transactions type. This design introduces batch transactions, concurrent execution, fee delegation, scheduled payments, and modern authentication mechanisms (such as biometrics) based on Passkey, all centered around real payment needs. These features aim to support on-chain scenarios like payroll, subscription deductions, and enterprise-level bulk payments, while reducing the complexity of user experience and operations for applications. Its block finality time is approximately 0.6 seconds, providing deterministic settlement guarantees for payments.
In mid-October 2025, Tempo completed a $500 million Series A funding round, with a post-money valuation of approximately $5 billion. This round was led by Greenoaks and Thrive Capital, with participation from institutions such as Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital, and SV Angel. Stripe and Paradigm themselves did not appear in the list of investors.
In terms of ecosystem development, Tempo announced its first batch of infrastructure partners in September, covering wallets, on/off-ramp channels, compliance, development tools, interoperability, and stablecoin-related services. Participants included MetaMask, Phantom, and others. In December, the official further disclosed that its partner network had expanded to include multiple financial institutions and large enterprises, including Visa, Mastercard, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, UBS, Shopify, and some tech companies.
In the same month, Swedish fintech company Klarna launched its stablecoin, KlarnaUSD, and chose to launch it on Tempo, becoming an early example of a payment scenario on the chain.
The Tempo team currently consists of about 15 people, operating independently but receiving support from Stripe and Paradigm in terms of resources and ecosystem. The project lead is Matt Huang, co-founder and managing partner of Paradigm, who is also a board member of Stripe. Public information indicates that Matt Huang will serve as Tempo's first CEO while continuing his managing role at Paradigm.
The core engineering team members primarily come from the Ethereum scaling and infrastructure fields. Among them, Liam Horne, former co-founder and CEO of Optimism, is involved in Tempo's core construction; Paradigm CTO Georgios Konstantopoulos is responsible for engineering direction, and his past experience with Reth, Foundry, and Ethereum clients and development tools provides crucial support for Tempo's underlying implementation. Market and partnership efforts are led by Simon Taylor, who has long been engaged in fintech consulting and entrepreneurship.
Ordinary users can experience the Tempo testnet through the following steps:
· First, add the Tempo testnet to a compatible wallet like MetaMask. Network information can be obtained from its official documentation.
· Second, users can claim free test stablecoins from the testnet faucet to pay for subsequent transaction fees.
· After obtaining test coins, users can perform a series of core interactions, such as sending an on-chain transaction on a specific website, deploying a simple smart contract using tools like Remix, or minting an NFT on the testnet. Additionally, users can register a testnet domain name or participate in tasks released by third-party platforms to deepen their engagement.
Users can also set up network nodes themselves by following the official documentation tutorials to participate in the network.
Tempo has not yet launched its mainnet, with the official estimated mainnet launch time set for 2026. The current testnet already supports basic EVM functionality and has launched payment channels, stablecoin gas mechanisms, and decentralized exchange components.
In terms of applications, the first NFT project has emerged on the Tempo testnet. The Momo series, released by artist Lola, is regarded as the first NFT collection on Tempo. The project features a retro animation style and is planned to gradually unfold in 2026.
Despite receiving significant attention from both traditional finance and crypto capital, Tempo's development path is not without controversy. Christian Catalini, who participated in the design of Meta's stablecoin project Libra, has publicly expressed skepticism about the corporate-led blockchain model. He believes that the core issue for projects like Tempo lies not in technology but in incentives and competitive structures. Once a de facto monopoly is formed, the open and permissionless nature of the network could be weakened.
