Stripe-backed blockchain startup Tempo raises $500M at a $5B valuation, in a round led by Thrive Capital and Greenoaks, as it builds a stablecoin-focused payments network with partners including **OpenAI, Shopify, and Visa**—betting that dollar-backed crypto will power the future of global transactions.

Blockchain startup Tempo, a payments-focused layer-1 developed out of Stripe and Paradigm, has raised $500 million in a Series A round that values the project at about $5 billion. The funding was led by Thrive Capital (founded by Joshua Kushner) and Greenoaks, with additional participation from Sequoia Capital, Ribbit Capital, and SV Angel, while Stripe and Paradigm did not themselves invest in the round. This is one of the largest blockchain venture financings in recent years and marks a rapid valuation step-up shortly after Tempo’s public unveiling. Tempo is being built as an Ethereum-compatible layer-1 blockchain optimized for high-throughput stablecoin payments and settlement, explicitly targeting real-world financial and commerce use cases. The network is designed to be stablecoin-focused but stablecoin-agnostic, meaning multiple dollar-backed tokens can be used on the chain and to pay for transaction fees rather than a single proprietary gas token. Design and go-to-market partners reportedly include OpenAI, Shopify, Visa, as well as firms like Anthropic and Deutsche Bank, positioning Tempo as an infrastructure layer that large enterprises can plug into for low-cost, programmable dollar transfers. The initiative is led by Matt Huang, managing partner at Paradigm and a Stripe board member, and is framed as a bet that USD-backed stablecoins will become a foundational network for global payments, potentially competing with both dominant stablecoin issuers such as Circle and Tether and existing card networks like Mastercard.

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

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