Stripe’s blockchain project, Tempo, raised $500 million in a Series A round, led by Greenoaks and Thrive Capital, valuing the network at $5 billion. Sequoia Capital and others joined. Stripe and Paradigm did not contribute. Stripe unveiled plans for a new layer-1 blockchain optimized for stablecoins. Tempo aims to be a high-scale, real-world financial application.

Paradigm’s CTO announced that the team from Ithaca is joining Tempo to build the blockchain’s payments infrastructure. Competing with established stablecoin issuers like Circle, creator of USDC, that is integrated with Mastercard and Visa. USDC has a market cap of $75.6 billion, second only to USDT. Circle plans to launch a layer-1 blockchain for stablecoin payments.

Recent momentum in stablecoin space follows the passage of the GENIUS Act in the US to establish federal rules for stablecoin issuers. Stablecoins pegged to the euro gain popularity as the EU aims to compete with USD-denominated tokens. The stablecoin market is evolving rapidly with new projects and regulations to shape the future of digital payments.

Read more at Cointelegraph: Stripe’s Tempo blockchain raises $500M at $5B valuation