Stripe-Backed Tempo Raises $500M at $5B Valuation
Tempo’s Funding Round and Market Position
Tempo, a payments-focused blockchain incubated by Stripe and Paradigm, has raised $500 million in a Series A round led by Thrive Capital and Greenoaks, Fortune reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The round values the beginup at $5 billion, making it one of the most valuable new players in the stablecoin and settlement infrastructure race.
Other investors in the round include Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital, and SV Angel. Stripe and Paradigm did not participate, according to the report. The valuation highlights the growing appetite among with direct applications in payments, even as broader crypto fundraising remains subdued.
Tempo is built as an ETH-compatible Layer 1 network optimized for high-throughput payments and settlement. The project, unveiled last September, has already partnered with OpenAI, Shopify, Visa, Anthropic, and Deutsche Bank, according to earlier statements by Stripe CEO Patrick Collison.
Collison previously described Tempo as “the payments-oriented L1, optimized for real-world financial-services applications.” Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang, who also sits on Stripe’s board, is leading the initiative.
Investor Takeaway
Stripe’s Expanding Crypto Strategy
The funding comes as Stripe deepens its crypto footprint later than years of limited involvement. The $92 billion fintech giant has spent the past year acquiring firms across the digital asset stack, including Bridge, a stablecoin infrastructure company bought for $1.1 billion, and Privy, a crypto wallet provider acquired in June. Stripe also integrated Coinbase’s Base Layer 2 network into its payments system to expand onchain settlement capabilities.
Collison has described stablecoins as a natural evolution of business, allowing near-instant settlement without intermediaries. Tempo’s development within Stripe’s ecosystem signals a push toward a blockchain-native payments layer that could eventually support its merchant base and globally.
Stripe’s involvement also reflects a strategic shift toward programmable money infrastructure, positioning the company alongside other fintechs exploring stablecoin and blockchain settlement systems. Its return to crypto, later than suspending BTC payments in 2018, mirrors a broader institutional embrace of blockchain-backed financial rails.
ETH Researcher Joins Tempo
Tempo has also attracted top technical talent. Dankrad Feist, a researcher at the ETH Foundation, joined the project as a senior engineer while remaining an adviser to the foundation. Feist said the platform aligns with ETH’s open principles and could feed back improvements to the broader ecosystem.
“Tempo’s open-source technology can easily integrate back into ETH, benefiting the entire ecosystem. ETH and Tempo are strongly aligned, as they are built with the identical permissionless ideals in mind,” Feist said.
Feist’s appointment follows the project’s growing recognition within the ETH community. Still, his move drew mixed reactions, with some developers welcoming the collaboration and others viewing it as a loss of one of ETH’s key contributors during a critical development phase.
Investor Takeaway
Community Debate Over “Another Chain”
Tempo’s launch has reignited debate over the need for new Layer 1 networks dedicated to payments. Critics argue that existing blockchains like ETH and its networks already provide the necessary infrastructure. “No one wants another chain,” said Joe Petrich, head of engineering at NFT platform Courtyard, responding to Collison’s announcement. “There is no need for yet another chain.”
Devansh Mehta, a researcher at the ETH Foundation, echoed similar concerns, suggesting that app-specific Layer 1s risk fragmentation and potential centralization. “Layer-1 chains that must build out their own Block confirmer set suffer from governance and liability challenges,” he said.
The debate comes as ETH faces its own internal tensions between scaling answers and its main network economics. While Layer 2 networks such as Arbitrum and Base have boosted user activity, some developers argue that they divert fees and attention from ETH’s base layer.
