The crypto industry is full of flamboyant actors who monopolize attention. But some build in the shade of the spotlights, patiently, before arising with a crash. Stripe is part of this category. For a long time in the world of digital payments, the company is not at its first bet on disruption. With Tempo, a blockchain designed for Stablecoins, Stripe and its paradigm partner redraw the future of global transactions.
In short
- Stripe launches tempo with paradigm, a blockchain designed to optimize stablecoins payments.
- Patrick Collison claims that Stablecoins finally meet the real needs of global companies.
- The partners include Visa, Revolut, Deutsche Bank, Nubank, Shopify, Openai and Anthropic.
- The CRYPTO CRITO CRITOTO community, believing that a LAYER 2 ETHEREUM would have served Stripe better.
From distrust to conversion: when Stripe embraces stablecoins
When Solana started to attack e-commerce, Stripe joined the crypto adventure. A surprise when you know that Patrick Collison has long expressed his skepticism. On Hacker News, The CEO of Stripe explained : ” There are many crypto skeptics on HN (and we were disappointed by the usefulness of crypto payments for a large part of the last decade). It can therefore be interesting to share what has made us change our minds in recent years: we have started to notice that many real companies found a utility in Stablecoins ».
This rocking is not theoretical. Stripe acquired Bridge in 2024, and since then, size customers have launched. SpaceX uses it to manage its flows in difficult to access areas. The Latin-American fintech Dolarapp relies on it to offer banking services. And an Argentinian bicycle importer pays its suppliers via the Stripe dashboard.
Collison insists:
It is important to emphasize that none of these companies uses crypto because it is crypto or for any speculative benefit. They carry out a real financial activity and have found that the crypto (via the stablecoins) is simpler, faster and better than the status quo.
Tempo, the new swift on-chain wanted by Stripe
Stripe and paradigm don't just want to participate: they want Build the infrastructure. Tempo is a blockchain designed to work behind the scenes, like Swift or Ach. Collison also spoke of a ” Decentralized swift on the internet scale ». The analogy is not perfect, but it illustrates the ambition.
The technical characteristics impress: 100,000 transactions per second, purpose in less than a second, EVM compatibility via Reth. The costs are payable directly in stablecoins, without a native token. Tempo also offers optional confidentiality, a dedicated “payment lane” with memos and access lists.
Stripe has brought together a skewer of partners who credibility the project: Visa, Standard Chartred, Deutsche Bank, Nubank, Revolut, Shopify, Openai or Anthropic.
The vision is clear: allow payments, remittances, tokenized deposits and microtransactions to pass on-chain, without imposing the complexity of blockchains on end users. For many, it is a serious attempt to transform stablecoins into overall payment rails.
The crypto is divided: was it really a new layer 1?
The launch of tempo was not unanimous. Some salute an ambitious project, others denounce a chain too much. Joe Petrich, engineer at Courtyard, reacted without detour:
No one wants another blockchain. The problems you mention are already resolved for people who are determined to use blockchains, so there is no need for a new channel that claims to “correct” these problems.
Technical criticisms have also shot. Helius Labs said that Collison was mistaken about Solana's abilities, describing his analysis of “Wrong on Several Dimensions” (translation “False on several points”).
Others, like Devansh Mehta from Ethereum Foundation, wonder why Tempo was not built like a Layer 2., according to him, an L2 would have made it possible to take advantage of Ethereum's safety and interoperability.
Key facts on tempo
- Launch in September 2025 by Stripe and ParadigM;
- Debt announced: more than 100,000 transactions per second;
- Finality: in a second, without a native token, fresh in stablecoins;
- Initial partners: Visa, Revolut, Deutsche Bank, Nubank, Shopify, Openai, Anthropic.
Stripe defends his choice: his volumes already exceed 10,000 transactions per second to the peaks of activity. For Collison, no current blockchain is calibrated for this scale. Tempo would therefore be the tool necessary for the world of crypto payments to switch to a new dimension.
Last May, Patrick Collison said that banks are very interested in Stablecoins. Four months later, Stripe appears to be one of the actors most committed to their adoption. With Tempo, the company is not content to accompany the trend: it tries to shape it, by placing the stablecoins at the heart of a future globalized payment system.
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