Tempo, incubated by Stripe and Paradigm, launches testnet; AI and banking giants join as partners

Co-incubated by Stripe and Paradigm and valued at $5 billion, payment-focused public blockchain Tempo officially launched its public testnet this week, attracting over 40 tech giants and financial institutions—including OpenAI, Visa, and Shopify—to participate in the testing. This L1 chain features payment fees as low as $0.001 and dedicated payment channels, aiming to become the primary on-chain payment infrastructure and potentially revolutionize cross-border remittances, AI agent commerce, and enterprise financial processes.

Tempo Testnet Launch: Stripe and Paradigm Build the Next-Gen Payment-Dedicated Chain

Tempo recently announced the official launch of its public testnet, marking the transition of this Stripe and Paradigm-incubated, $5 billion-valued payment-centric L1 from concept to operational network.

Since its announcement in September, Tempo has continually attracted mainstream enterprises, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Visa, Deutsche Bank, Shopify, Coupang, Revolut, Nubank, and Kalshi—global tech, e-commerce, and financial giants—as collaborative partners to validate network performance.

In October this year, Tempo secured a $500 million Series A round led by Thrive Capital, Greenoaks, Sequoia, Ribbit, and other major VCs.

(Tempo Debuts: A New Blockchain Force Incubated by Stripe and Paradigm, Purpose-Built for Payments)

Designed for Stablecoin Payments: Low Fees and Dedicated Channels Redefine On-Chain Experience

Tempo’s key difference from other L1s lies in its architecture, built entirely around “payments.” Features include a fixed $0.001 transaction fee, 0.5-second instant finality, dedicated payment channels to prevent network congestion, use of USD stablecoins directly as gas, support for modern passkey authentication, batch payments, and scheduled transactions.

All of these make Tempo more aligned with mainstream finance’s needs for reliability and multifaceted scalability.

(A Look at the Competitive Stablecoin L1 Blockchain Landscape: Who Will Win the Global “On-Chain Payments” Battleground?)

Targeting Global Payments, Micropayments, and AI Agents: Tempo Captures Next-Gen Financial Flows

According to the announcement, Tempo’s testnet already supports multiple types of financial flows, including cross-border remittances, global corporate spending, payroll, embedded finance (embedded finance), and micropayments.

Tempo states its fixed low fees and deterministic settlement maximize support for API billing, streaming content, IoT device payments, and similar use cases. AI agent commerce developers can leverage Tempo’s programmable accounts and predictable rates, enabling AI agents to transact autonomously without being affected by price volatility. Financial institutions can also test tokenized deposits and experiment with true 24/7 instant settlement services on Tempo.

Looking Ahead: KlarnaUSD Leads Global Enterprises On-Chain

Notably, “buy now, pay later” (BNPL) giant Klarna last month chose to launch its USD stablecoin, KlarnaUSD, on Tempo rather than Ethereum. This has sparked concerns in the crypto community that global fintech startups are bypassing Ethereum in favor of proprietary enterprise chains, potentially weakening Ethereum’s position as the “world computer.”

(Payment Giant Klarna Chooses Tempo to Issue Its Own Stablecoin—Is Ethereum Being Sidelined Again by Enterprise-Grade L1s?)

Tempo states that its testnet currently operates with four in-house validators, with the vision of making “on-chain payments as natural as online payments.” The team will continue to expand its infrastructure and partnerships to support global-scale real-time payment operations.

This article Stripe and Paradigm Incubated Tempo Launches Testnet, AI and Banking Giants Join as Partners first appeared on Chain News ABMedia.