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Tempo Hits $5B in Funding Round
Stripe’s bold move into blockchain is paying off. The fintech giant’s new network, Tempo, has hit a jaw-dropping $5 billion valuation after a $500 million Series A led by Thrive Capital and Greenoaks. Big names like Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital, and SV Angel also joined the round.
The investment comes just weeks after Stripe unveiled Tempo — its very own layer-1 blockchain built for stablecoin payments and real-world transactions. CEO Patrick Collison said existing blockchains weren’t optimized for Stripe’s growing crypto activity, so they built one that is.
(Layer-1 blockchains are base networks like Bitcoin or Ethereum that handle transactions directly, unlike layer-2s which run on top of them.)
A Payments Chain with Big Ambitions
Tempo is designed as a “payments-first” blockchain. It aims to handle global transactions at high scale, offering the speed and reliability traditional payment processors demand. While Stripe hasn’t confirmed a native Tempo token, its goal clearly targets the booming stablecoin economy, where players like Circle (USDC) and Tether (USDT) already dominate.
Circle even plans to launch its own blockchain soon, signaling a new era where stablecoin infrastructure becomes a key fintech battleground.
Ethereum Developer Joins the Tempo Team
In a move that raised eyebrows across the crypto world, Dankrad Feist, a veteran researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, announced he’s joining the Tempo project. Feist will stay on as an Ethereum adviser while helping Tempo scale its open-source payments technology.
He called Tempo and Ethereum “aligned in values,” saying their tech could complement each other, not compete. This crossover could bridge the best of fintech and decentralized finance.
(Dankrad Feist is known for his work on Ethereum scaling and data management, including “blobs,” a feature that helps free up blockchain storage space.)
Community Reactions: Excitement Meets Skepticism
Crypto Twitter lit up following Stripe’s Tempo reveal. Some praised it as a “crypto comeback” for Stripe — once skeptical of blockchain. Others, including Ethereum engineers, questioned the need for yet another chain.
Critics argue that building a new layer-1 from scratch could bring centralization risks and legal hurdles, while supporters see it as a bold shot at modernizing how the world moves money.
Either way, with $5B in backing and Ethereum talent on board, Tempo is set to make noise in the payments world — whether the crypto crowd likes it or not.
