Tempo, a new Layer 1 blockchain incubated by fintech giant Stripe and crypto investment firm Paradigm, wants to change that.
Built as an Ethereum-compatible network, Tempo is designed from the ground up to serve high-volume, real-world payments, with a strong focus on stablecoins.
Rethinking Payments Infrastructure
General-purpose blockchains such as Ethereum or Solana are often optimized for trading activity. This means congestion and unpredictable fees are common. For businesses handling millions of transactions, these bottlenecks make crypto a tough sell. Tempo aims to tackle this gap by offering a specialized network with high throughput and low latency. According to its team, the network can process more than 100,000 transactions per second, with finality—meaning settlement confirmation—in less than a second.
Introducing Tempo: a payments-first blockchain incubated by Stripe and Paradigm.
As stablecoins go mainstream, there’s a need for optimized infrastructure. Tempo is purpose-built for stablecoins and real-world payments, born from Stripe’s experience in global payments and…
— tempo (@tempo) September 4, 2025
Stripe brings deep experience in handling global payments, while Paradigm contributes expertise in scaling crypto infrastructure. The result is a neutral, permissionless platform intended to power stablecoin-based transactions at scale. That could enable use cases like instant cross-border remittances, on-chain payroll for global workforces, and tokenized bank deposits for faster interbank settlement. In fact, the World Bank estimates that remittance flows to low- and middle-income countries topped $669 billion in 2023. Tempo’s promise of instant, low-cost transfers directly targets this massive market.
Missed the big Stripe Tempo and Circle Arc announcements? Here’s why they could be game changers for Ethereum and EVM.
Messari’s Copilot breaks it down. pic.twitter.com/KFe8qrui3w
— Jimmy Skuros (@jskuros) September 5, 2025
A Strategic Step for Stripe
Tempo did not emerge overnight. Reports first surfaced in August 2025, when Fortune revealed that Stripe and Paradigm were quietly developing a blockchain tailored to payments. The project became official in September, launching with a private testnet for select partners. Stripe had already been expanding its crypto footprint earlier that year with “Stablecoin Financial Accounts,” giving businesses new ways to hold and use digital dollars. Tempo now represents the next step: building the rails for these stablecoins to move at internet speed.
Blockchains weren’t built for payroll-grade volume.
That’s why @zcabrams, founder of @Stablecoin, built @tempo.
Tempo is Layer 1 EVM laser-focused on throughput and reliability.
But Tempo is not a @stripe corporate blockchain.
It’s shared infrastructure. If PayPal wanted to… pic.twitter.com/9qCfMyzecj
— Bankless (@BanklessHQ) September 5, 2025
The network is built using Reth, a Rust-based Ethereum execution layer, making it familiar to developers already building in the Ethereum ecosystem. Key features include support for microtransactions—like fractions of a cent for digital content—programmable finance tools for developers, and even agentic commerce, where AI systems can handle instant payments. Over time, Tempo plans to evolve from its early validator set of design partners into a fully permissionless model.
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