Tempo attracts financial giants: Blockchain for stablecoin payments begins testing

Tempo, the first-layer blockchain developed jointly by Stripe and Paradigm, has just launched its public testnet. This initiative marks a key milestone for the blockchain-based payments market, especially in the context of the growing interest in stablecoins as a settlement tool.

Banking institutions join the Tempo ecosystem

The growth dynamics of Tempo’s partnership network are particularly noticeable. The project, which raised $500 million in funding with a $5 billion valuation four months ago, not only maintains its expansion pace but also attracts new participants from the traditional finance sector.

Recent partners such as Deutsche Bank and Standard Chartered have been joined by Mastercard, UBS, and Kalshi. Even more significant is Kalarny’s involvement, which has become the first digital banking institution to issue a dollar-denominated stablecoin on the Tempo network. This move signals a shift in attitude among major financial players toward blockchain-based settlements.

Testnet opens new opportunities for developers

The public Tempo testnet features a set of functions intentionally designed for financial applications. Developers can now run nodes, synchronize the chain, and experiment with existing platform tools.

Notable features include:

• Dedicated channels for payment transactions
• Native gas fees settled in stablecoins
• Built-in decentralized stable asset exchange platform
• Metadata system for payments and transfers
• Deterministic transaction finality
• Advanced wallet authentication protocols

An interesting possibility is creating testnet stablecoins directly from a web browser using the TIP-20 standard. Paradigm CTO Georgios Konstantopoulos highlighted this functionality as particularly important for developer testing.

Positioning in the blockchain payments market

Tempo is defined as a first-layer blockchain built specifically for the payments ecosystem. Unlike universal networks that often struggle with unpredictable operational costs and settlement delays, Tempo adopts an approach optimized for fee predictability and instant transaction finality.

The stages immediately before mainnet launch will focus on scalability, infrastructure robustness, and partner integration. The team also plans to onboard additional entities as infrastructure providers, expand the developer tool ecosystem, and conduct real-world performance testing in production conditions.

Significance for the future of payments

The public test phase will be a crucial test of Tempo’s real capabilities. Feedback from the developer community, performance test results, and the pace of integration with financial institutions will shape the path toward the mainnet version. Support from Stripe and the involvement of leading financial institutions provide the project with a solid foundation at the start.