The cryptocurrency sector is undergoing a structural shift, with top players successively deploying self-controlled blockchain facilities. Following Coinbase’s integration of user resources into an ecosystem advantage with its Base chain, Robinhood and eToro have also announced plans to build their own chains. In this trend, constructing an underlying public chain has evolved from an option to a "strategic necessity."
Today, key developments are emerging in the global payments competitive landscape. Payments giant Stripe and USDC stablecoin issuer Circle have disclosed plans to develop their own L1 public chains—Tempo and Arc, respectively. This move reflects a clear strategic shift: they are no longer relying solely on third-party blockchain infrastructure but are instead building a complete technical system from the underlying protocol to the settlement layer. Leveraging their deep积累 in the enterprise payments market, this initiative by both parties will further drive the specialization and competitive intensity of the crypto settlement track.
As a fintech giant processing trillions of dollars in global transactions, Stripe’s crypto ambitions are deeply embedded in its DNA, but its exploration journey has been fraught with twists and turns. In 2014, Stripe was one of the first mainstream companies to support Bitcoin payments but withdrew in 2018 due to network efficiency issues. Repeatedly "boarding" and "exiting" the crypto space made it acutely aware that to truly integrate crypto technology into its极致 payment experience and achieve full control, it must own its underlying infrastructure.
Thus, Stripe embarked on a "silent march." Through strategic acquisitions of crypto wallet developer Privy and stablecoin infrastructure company Bridge, it quietly assembled the core pieces of "wallet + stablecoin technology." In August 2025, according to a deleted job posting, payments service giant Stripe and crypto venture capital firm Paradigm are collaborating on a high-performance L1 blockchain project named "Tempo."
Tempo is positioned as an independent L1 blockchain designed specifically for enterprise payment scenarios. Its target users are not individual crypto investors but rather financial leaders and treasury management teams of large multinational corporations. From its job postings, which mention requirements such as "marketing experience targeting Fortune 500 audiences" and "solving practical problems for CFOs," it is clear that Tempo is explicitly focused on serving enterprise-level users, aiming to build a settlement network that meets the fund flow needs of global enterprises.
Tempo’s core goal is to provide a global enterprise payment solution superior to the existing SWIFT system. As an interbank messaging network, SWIFT relies on multi-tier correspondent banking for transfers, a model that has long led to inefficiencies, high costs, and lack of transparency in cross-border payments. Built on blockchain technology, Tempo aims to achieve near-instantaneous, significantly cheaper, and fully traceable cross-border payment processing.
In terms of technical implementation, Tempo is designed with high performance as a core objective, specifically manifested in extremely high transaction throughput (TPS) and sub-second transaction finality time (TTF). This ensures that once a transaction is on-chain, it is irreversible, providing deterministic and highly reliable settlement functions for corporate financial operations.
Stripe’s overall strategy is to build a complete crypto payment infrastructure to more efficiently support global payment operations. This architecture covers the underlying Tempo blockchain, middleware stablecoin and wallet technology, and top-layer payment APIs and user interfaces, aiming to provide enterprise clients with a seamless, efficient, and fully controllable end-to-end payment experience.
