Tempo is a new Layer 1 blockchain developed by fintech company Stripe in partnership with crypto venture capital firm Paradigm. Its core focus is providing dedicated infrastructure for large-scale payment scenarios. The project launched its public testnet this December and plans to launch mainnet in 2026.
Tempo is not a general-purpose smart contract platform. Its design has always revolved around optimizing the core scenario of "payment," with the goal of solving the problems of high cost and low efficiency 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, serving as the foundation for functions such as network fees and payment gateways.
Unlike most public blockchains, 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 according to the TIP-20 standard and has sufficient liquidity in the on-chain fee AMM. The official team has set a fixed base fee rate, rather than the dynamic model used by Ethereum EIP-1559. The goal is to keep the cost of a single TIP-20 transaction below $0.001, with the fees going directly to the block-producing validators.
One of Tempo's core innovations is its native Tempo Transactions transaction type. This design incorporates batch transactions, concurrent execution, fee payment on behalf of clients, scheduled payments, and modern authentication mechanisms based on Passkey (such as biometrics) to meet real-world payment needs. These features aim to support on-chain scenarios such as payroll, subscription deductions, and enterprise-level batch payments, while reducing the complexity for users and developers in terms of user experience and operations. Its block final confirmation 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, valuing the company at approximately $5 billion post-money. The round was led by Greenoaks and Thrive Capital, with participation from Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital, and SV Angel, among others. Stripe and Paradigm were not listed among the investors.
In terms of ecosystem development, Tempo announced its first batch of infrastructure partners in September, covering wallets, deposit and withdrawal channels, compliance, development tools, interoperability, and stablecoin-related services. Participants included MetaMask and Phantom. In December, the company further disclosed that its partner network had expanded to include numerous financial institutions and large enterprises, including Visa, Mastercard, Deutsche Bank, Standard Chartered Bank, UBS, Shopify, and several technology companies.
In the same month, Swedish fintech company Klarna launched its stablecoin KlarnaUSD and chose to list it on Tempo, becoming an early example of the chain in payment scenarios.
Tempo currently has a team of approximately 15 people and operates independently, but receives support from Stripe and Paradigm in terms of resources and ecosystem. The project leader is Matt Huang, co-founder and managing partner of Paradigm, who is also a member of Stripe's board of directors. Public information indicates that Matt Huang will serve as Tempo's inaugural CEO and will continue to hold management roles at Paradigm.
The core engineering team primarily comes from the Ethereum scaling and infrastructure fields. Liam Horne, former co-founder and CEO of Optimism, participated in the core construction of Tempo; Georgios Konstantopoulos, CTO of Paradigm, is responsible for engineering, and his past experience in Reth, Foundry, and Ethereum clients and development tools provides crucial support for Tempo's underlying implementation. Simon Taylor, with extensive experience in fintech consulting and entrepreneurship, is responsible for marketing and partnerships.
Regular users can experience the Tempo testnet by following these steps:
First, you need to add the Tempo testnet to compatible wallets such as MetaMask. Network information can be obtained through its official documentation.
Secondly, users can claim free test stablecoins from the testnet faucet to pay for transaction fees in subsequent transactions.
After obtaining testnet tokens, users can engage in a range 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 NFTs on the testnet. Furthermore, users can register testnet domains or participate in tasks offered by third-party platforms to enhance their interaction.
At the same time, users can also set up network nodes themselves and participate in the network by following the official documentation.
Tempo has not yet launched mainnet, with the official mainnet date expected in 2026. The current testnet supports basic EVM functionality and includes payment channels, a stablecoin gas mechanism, and decentralized trading components.
At the application level, the Tempo testnet has already seen its first NFT project. The Momo series released by artist Lola is considered the first NFT collection on Tempo. The project features a retro animation style as its visual characteristic and is planned to be rolled out gradually in 2026.
Despite the significant attention Tempo has garnered from traditional finance and crypto capital, its development path is not without controversy. Christian Catalini, who participated in the design of Meta's stablecoin project Libra, has publicly expressed skepticism about enterprise-led blockchain models. He believes that the core problem facing projects like Tempo is not technology, but rather the incentive and competition structure. Once a de facto monopoly is established, the open and permissionless nature of the network may be weakened.
