On Thursday, Patrick Collison, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Stripe, officially revealed that his company is providing funding for a newly established blockchain venture named Tempo. This initiative represents Stripe’s latest foray into advancing the digital payments ecosystem, and it has been conceived with a very specific purpose in mind: enabling the large-scale, efficient, and high-speed processing of stablecoin transactions. Stablecoins, as Collison emphasized, serve a particularly crucial role within the broader cryptocurrency industry. Unlike more volatile digital assets such as Bitcoin or Ethereum, stablecoins are directly tied or “pegged” to underlying reference assets—most often a fiat currency like the U.S. dollar. As a result, they mitigate the dramatic price fluctuations that have historically rendered cryptocurrencies difficult to use for everyday transactions and international payments. Given this utility, it is not altogether shocking that Stripe would dedicate resources to a blockchain optimized for stablecoins, particularly since the firm had previously broadened its portfolio by acquiring Bridge, another company directly focused on stablecoin infrastructure.
What truly commands attention, however, is not simply the creation of Tempo itself but rather the extraordinary coalition of businesses that Stripe has already persuaded to participate in its development. The list of strategic collaborators reads like a cross-industry roll call of global influence and innovation: the artificial intelligence powerhouse Anthropic; South Korean e-commerce giant Coupang; international banking leaders such as Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered; the global food delivery platform DoorDash; fintech players like Lead Bank, Mercury, Nubank, and Revolut; trailblazing technology companies including OpenAI and Shopify; and payment titan Visa. The presence of such a wide-ranging set of partners indicates that if Tempo ultimately proves to function well at scale, these organizations are positioned to integrate the technology directly into their operations. Potential applications range from facilitating seamless cross-border remittances to enabling highly automated digital payments managed by AI-driven “agentic” systems.
Adding further weight to the enterprise is the role of Matt Huang, who serves as a member of Stripe’s board of directors. Beyond his position at Stripe, Huang is also the co-founder of Paradigm, one of the most prominent and well-respected investment firms operating within the cryptocurrency and blockchain sphere. His decision to personally take on a leadership role in Tempo underlines the seriousness of the project’s ambitions, while Paradigm’s financial investment signals institutional confidence in its prospects. Importantly, despite Stripe’s considerable involvement in funding and catalyzing the project, Collison confirmed that Tempo will be structured as an independently run company. This separation suggests an intention to cultivate Tempo as a distinct entity with its own governance, strategic vision, and operational autonomy, rather than as a mere subsidiary or extension of Stripe’s existing operations.
In sum, Stripe’s unveiling of Tempo represents not just another blockchain startup but a significant initiative with profound implications for the stability, utility, and scalability of digital payments. With backing from both established financial institutions and next-generation technology innovators, and under the stewardship of seasoned leaders from both Stripe and Paradigm, Tempo is being positioned as a potential cornerstone in the future infrastructure of global stablecoin transactions.
Sourse: https://techcrunch.com/2025/09/04/stripe-enlists-a-whos-who-including-anthropic-openai-and-paradigm-to-build-a-new-blockchain/
