Top Crypto VC Matt Huang to direct the Stripe blockchain tempo as CEO, stay in Paradigm

Huang will remain in his role in Paradigme, according to one of the sources, which, like the others, was not authorized to speak publicly about the question.

Paradigme and Stripe spokesperson refused to comment on Huang’s decision or the blockchain project.

A private company of $ 91.5 billion, Stripe is a leader in the payment space and represents one of the large most publicized technological companies to bet strongly on the cryptographic industry. In the past year, he made splashing acquisitions of the stable bridge firm and the cryptographic portfolio provider in private. By launching his own blockchain, Stripe fully searches for the property of the technological battery supplying its booming stablecoin activity.

Co-founded by Huang, a former partner of Sequoia, with the co-founder of Coinbase Fred Ehrsam, Paradigm is a leader in the venture capital space. Since 2024, he had $ 12.7 billion in assets under management and has supported some of the main projects of the industry, including the decentralization of Crypto Exchange Uniswap, the Kalshi prediction market and the Crypto Fireblocks infrastructure company.

Thanks to its role in the board of directors of Stripe, Huang has long been a partner close to the firm Fintech, but its decision to lead the new blockchain represents a major bet on the future domination of Stripe in the crowded landscape of the stables. According to a recent employment publication, Tempo will be a “high performance” protocol specializing in payments.

The tempo will be a so-called layer-1 blockchain, which means that it is not built at the top of the Ethereum blockchain or another primary chain, and will be able to execute code compatible with Ethereum, according to four sources familiar with the project. The moment of launch is unknown, and it is not clear at the moment if the blockchain will have its own token.

Huang’s decision will surely be the eyebrows of those who wonder to wonder if the venture capital investor can balance his roles as a leader in the paradigm and the CEO of a blockchain reached for one of the first Fintech companies.

Ehrsam, the co -founder of Huang, left his role as director partner in 2023 to focus more on his brain interface startup cloud, although a general partner remains. Paradigm announced a third fund of $ 850 million in 2024.

However, paradigm has an incubation inheritance of its own projects similar to tempo, in particular the foundry of the Ethereum development toolbox and the Open-Source Crypto Bot Artemis. But with the best crypto players, including Circle, announcing their own blockchains, Huang’s decision to direct the latest paradigm company reflects the assembly competition in cryptographic payments.