Tempo

What Tempo does

Tempo operates a Layer 1 blockchain purpose-built for stablecoin payments, incubated by Stripe and Paradigm. The company serves enterprises, banks, remittance operators, payroll platforms, marketplaces, consumer fintechs, and AI agent commerce providers that require programmable money movement at internet scale. Tempo's core protocol delivers deterministic sub-second (~0.6s) finality, predictable per-transaction fees of approximately $0.001 paid in USD stablecoins rather than a volatile native token, and dedicated payment lanes that insulate throughput from non-payment network activity. The platform is EVM-compatible and bundles a suite of protocol-level primitives: the TIP-20 token standard with built-in pause/unpause/burn compliance functions, Tempo Policies (TIP-403) for allowlists and blacklists, Tempo Zones for private execution with selective auditor disclosure, 32-byte transfer memos for ISO 20022 / IVMS101 reconciliation, and native account abstraction (Access Keys, passkeys, batch transactions, gas sponsorship, scheduled payments).

Tempo's product surface extends from the mainnet into developer tooling (Tempo Wallet, Accounts SDK, Explorer, Status, GitHub), the Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) co-authored with Stripe for AI agent-to-service payments, and a Stablecoin Advisory practice staffed with forward-deployed engineers. The go-to-market is dual: developer-first through public RPC endpoints and comprehensive documentation, and enterprise-first via a Stablecoin Advisory practice targeting Fortune 500s, banks, fintechs, and large marketplaces. Tempo monetizes through network transaction fees in stablecoins, advisory professional services, and direct validator participation rewards alongside Stripe, Visa, Zodia Custody, and MoneyGram.

The business is privately held, raised $500M in Series A funding at approximately $5B valuation in October 2025, and is headquartered in San Francisco.

Name

Tempo

Legal name

Tempo

Website

https://tempo.xyz

Company type

Private

Founded year

2025

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

51–100 employees

Short description

Tempo operates a Layer 1 blockchain purpose-built for stablecoin payments, serving enterprises, banks, remittance operators, payroll platforms, marketplaces, and AI agent commerce providers. Incubated by Stripe and Paradigm, it monetizes via transaction fees, validator rewards, and a Stablecoin Advisory practice.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Blockchain Payment Infrastructure

NAICS

Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (518)

SIC

Finance Services (6199)

akta.pro primary industry

Smart Contract Developer Platforms & Tooling (SDKs, APIs, frameworks, indexing) (FSAPAAAH)

akta.pro secondary industries

Compliance, Risk & RegTech for Tokenized Assets (KYC/AML, sanctions, travel rule, reporting) (FSAPAIAH), Crypto Payments & Stablecoin Settlement Platforms (BPAMAFAL), Blockchain Settlement & Clearing Infrastructure (On-/Off-chain Post-Trade) (FSAGAMAC)

Keywords

• Stablecoin payment infrastructure
• Blockchain payment rails
• Cross-border stablecoin settlement
• AI agent payment protocol
• Layer 1 blockchain payments

Headquarters

HQ city

San Francisco

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Operations, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Stablecoin Gas / Network Transaction Fees: Tempo earns revenue from network transaction fees paid in stablecoins (~$0.001 per transaction). Fees are denominated in USD stablecoins rather than a volatile native token, providing predictable economics. Transaction volume scales with enterprise and machine-to-machine payment workloads across cross-border payouts, remittances, payroll, embedded finance, and agentic commerce.
2. Stablecoin Advisory Services: Tempo launched a Stablecoin Advisory practice offering use case scoping, solution architecture, forward-deployed engineering, and infrastructure partner access to enterprises and financial institutions adopting stablecoins. Represents a professional services revenue stream alongside the underlying protocol revenue.
3. Validator / Network Participation: Tempo operates as one of the anchor validators on its own network alongside Stripe, Visa, Zodia Custody, MoneyGram, and others. Validators earn stablecoin rewards for securing the network; Tempo's role as an anchor validator provides direct exposure to network economics.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion4 records

Marketing channels10 records

Core offering

Tempo operates a Layer 1 blockchain purpose-built for stablecoin payments, offering high-throughput, low-cost global transactions with deterministic sub-second finality and stablecoin-native gas fees. The platform includes protocol-level primitives for compliance (TIP-20, TIP-403), privacy (Tempo Zones), and account abstraction, alongside the open Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) co-authored with Stripe for AI agent-to-machine payments.

Product overview

Tempo is a single unified platform-plus-modules architecture: the core product is the Tempo Mainnet, an EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain purpose-built for stablecoin payments and incubated by Stripe and Paradigm. Built on top of this core rail are several protocol-level modules and add-ons: (1) TIP-20, the native token standard for payments with built-in compliance functions; (2) Tempo Policies (TIP-403) for allowlist/blacklist enforcement; (3) Tempo Transactions, a framework for paying network fees in stablecoins; (4) Tempo Zones for private execution environments with selective disclosure; (5) Tempo Connect (the underlying stablecoin account layer enabling embedded finance use cases like the Deel wallet and Altitude platform). External add-on products include: the Machine Payments Protocol (MPP), an open standard co-authored with Stripe for AI agent payments; Tempo Wallet and Tempo Accounts SDK for agent and developer wallet provisioning; the Morpho DeFi integration for on-chain lending/yield; and Stablecoin Advisory, a professional services offering. Together these products form an end-to-end stack for stablecoin issuance, transfer, settlement, agentic commerce, and regulatory-compliant money movement.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Tempo Zones: Private execution environment for enterprises and financial institutions to process stablecoin transactions on Tempo Mainnet without exposing payment data to the public blockchain, used for payroll, treasury, and tokenized deposit workflows.
• pathUSD

Products and services

• Tempo Mainnet A purpose-built, EVM-compatible Layer 1 blockchain for stablecoin payments, incubated by Stripe and Paradigm. Provides sub-second deterministic finality (~0.6 seconds), predictable dollar-denominated fees ($0.001 per transaction paid in stablecoins), high-throughput dedicated payment lanes, and global availability. Designed for real-world payments workloads rather than trading or DeFi.
• Tempo Testnet Public testnet environment for Tempo, enabling developers to test stablecoin creation, fast settlement, and integration capabilities before mainnet deployment.
• Machine Payments Protocol (MPP) An open, rail-agnostic standard co-authored by Stripe and Tempo for autonomous machine-to-machine and AI agent payments. Enables microtransactions, recurring payments, and programmatic settlement using stablecoins, cards, and other payment methods via Session Keys and a payments directory of 100+ services.
• Tempo Wallet Agent wallet SDK and hosted wallet for funding AI agent wallets, setting permissions, managing accounts, and budgeting. Supports credit card, Apple Pay, ACH, and fiat funding.
• Tempo Accounts SDK SDK enabling applications to create user, agent, and team accounts on Tempo with native account abstraction including passkey authentication, gas sponsorship, and batch transactions.
• Tempo Zones Private execution environment allowing enterprises and financial institutions to process stablecoin transactions on Tempo Mainnet without exposing payment data to the public blockchain. Provides operator-controlled confidentiality with selective disclosure to authorized parties and regulators.
• Stablecoin Advisory Hands-on practice of payments specialists, banking experts, and forward-deployed engineers helping enterprises and financial institutions bring stablecoins into production. Includes use case scoping and strategy, solution architecture, forward-deployed engineering, and infrastructure partner access.

Named customers23 records

Segments9 records

Ideal customer profiles7 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

Yes

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration55 records

AI capability9 records

Feature10 records

Scale indicators18 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights2 records

Direct peers

• Plasma: Plasma is a stablecoin-focused Layer-1 blockchain (raised $24M+ Seed, then a major token sale) targeting global payments and remittances with comparable technical positioning to Tempo as a purpose-built stablecoin rail.
• Stable: Stable is a payments-focused Layer-1 blockchain purpose-built for stablecoin transactions and USD value transfer, with a comparable technical thesis to Tempo and recent VC backing positioning it as a direct rival for stablecoin payment workloads.
• Tether (Plasma/Stable-aligned L1 initiatives): Tether, issuer of USDT, has been pushing dedicated infrastructure including Plasma and other payment-focused initiatives; as the dominant stablecoin by volume, Tether-aligned chains compete directly with Tempo for issuer and remittance workloads.
• Circle (Arc L1): Circle launched its own Arc Layer-1 blockchain purpose-built for stablecoin payments and USDC settlement, the most direct head-to-head competitor to Tempo with similar enterprise positioning and Circle's issuer-of-USDC advantage.

Broad incumbents

• Ethereum / L2s (Optimism, Arbitrum): Ethereum and its Layer-2 rollups host the largest share of USDC and stablecoin value; Tempo must win net-new payment workloads away from this broader incumbent ecosystem where Circle and Tether settle.
• Ripple (XRP Ledger): Ripple and the XRP Ledger are the most established payments-focused blockchain infrastructure players with deep bank relationships, RLUSD stablecoin, and decades of cross-border payment focus; compete with Tempo in the institutional settlement corridor.
• Base (Coinbase): Base is Coinbase's Ethereum Layer-2 with a strong stablecoin payment narrative, large developer ecosystem, and Coinbase's distribution; competes with Tempo as a broader incumbent with significant stablecoin activity.
• Stellar: Stellar is a long-standing Layer-1 focused on cross-border payments and tokenized assets with strong institutional and remittance partnerships; serves as a broader incumbent in the same niche Tempo targets.
• Solana: Solana is a high-throughput general-purpose Layer-1 with growing stablecoin payment volume, fast finality, and low fees; competes with Tempo as a broader incumbent adding payments-friendly features rather than being purpose-built for them.
• Polygon: Polygon operates a suite of Ethereum scaling solutions (PoS, zkEVM, Polygon CDK) with established payment partnerships including Stripe's earlier USDC integration on Polygon; competes with Tempo as a broader incumbent with payments focus.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat8 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/tempo
• GitHubgithub.com/tempoxyz
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/tempo

Compliance8 records

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Subsidiaries1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors5 records

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments2 records

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Tempo