Stripe Collaborates with Paradigm to Develop Its Own EVM Layer 1 “Tempo,” Enhancing the Landscape of Stablecoin Payments

08/12/2025

Payment Giant Stripe’s Blockchain Initiative: Tempo

Recently, payment giant Stripe has been revealed to be quietly collaborating with cryptocurrency venture capital firm Paradigm to develop its own EVM L1 blockchain, Tempo, which focuses on high performance aimed at the payment sector. This not only continues Stripe’s layout regarding stablecoins and cryptocurrency wallets but also elevates it from a traditional payment service provider to a complete and independent payment network.

Stripe’s Own Blockchain Tempo: A Payment-Oriented High-Performance L1

According to a report by Fortune, a recruitment advertisement posted by Paradigm on August 3 inadvertently exposed Stripe’s blockchain plans. The job description indicated that Stripe is working with Paradigm to create a high-performance public chain named “Tempo,” which focuses on payment scenarios. This network adopts an L1 architecture and is EVM compatible, allowing it to directly execute smart contracts on Ethereum.

Interestingly, Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang is also a director at Stripe. The project is currently in a confidential development phase, with only a team of five members.

Following the news, the job listing page was promptly removed. Although Stripe has yet to respond or clarify whether it will issue its own tokens or stablecoins, this move has drawn significant attention from both the payment and cryptocurrency industries.

From Assets to Entry Points: Stripe’s Crypto Puzzle is Coming Together

The emergence of Tempo is not an isolated event, but rather a continuation of Stripe’s strategic layout over the past few years.

October last year: Acquired stablecoin infrastructure provider Bridge for $1.1 billion, assisting businesses in integrating stablecoins into their payment processes, even issuing its own stablecoin.
June this year: Acquired embedded cryptocurrency wallet developer Privy, allowing users to create cryptocurrency wallets directly through email or social logins.

(Stripe’s Global Layout! Launching Stablecoin Product Testing, Targeting Overseas Markets)

100y.eth, Head of Research at Four Pillars, pointed out that by controlling “stablecoin assets (Bridge)” and “user entry points (Privy),” Stripe has already secured two key layers of the payment stack:

If this comes to fruition, Stripe will not only be a payment service provider (PSP) that connects merchants, acquiring institutions, card networks, and issuing banks; it has become an independent payment network.

Bypassing Visa and Mastercard, Stripe Builds Its Own Comprehensive Payment Network

100y.eth cited a report from last month, indicating that the logic behind Stripe establishing Tempo is clear: “In the future, users will be able to pay merchants directly using stablecoins through the Stripe wallet, with the entire transaction completed on the Tempo chain, bypassing traditional intermediaries such as Visa, Mastercard, and issuing banks.”

Four Pillars illustrated the operational model of Stripe’s potential L1 ecosystem last month.

He emphasized that this model can bring significant advantages: “Faster payments, lower costs, and entirely new on-chain business models (such as per-second billing for micro-fees and idle fund yield services).” Most large payment companies view blockchain as a “feature.” If Stripe treats it as “infrastructure,” we may witness a moment that could rewrite payment history.

Ethereum’s Exclusion: Why Did L2 Lose?

The news has sparked widespread discussion within the cryptocurrency community, especially since Robinhood had just leveraged Arbitrum L2 technology to create its own blockchain, leading to curiosity about the reasons behind Ethereum’s exclusion this time.

Former Aave institutional business director chainyoda even jokingly remarked, “Stripe’s EVM L1 is like the 9/11 event for Optimism and Arbitrum.”

In response, Optimism co-founder Mark Tyneway stated, “Stripe’s choice to go L1 rather than L2 shows that the target is not existing crypto-native users.” They are indifferent to Ethereum’s network effects; most users simply want products that meet their usage scenarios and do not need or wish to disengage from these frameworks.

At the same time, Liu Feng, founder of Chain News, pointed out that the requirement for the marketing position to have “experience marketing to Fortune 500 corporate audiences” indicates that Stripe’s target is clearly not crypto-native users.

Driven by the GENIUS Act, the Next Step for Payment Hegemony

With the GENIUS Act providing a clear regulatory framework for the U.S. payment-stablecoin market, Stripe’s actions appear particularly forward-looking. Tempo represents not just a technological upgrade, but potentially a critical leap from being a payment service provider to becoming a payment network owner.

Risk Warning

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