Exclusive: Top crypto VC Matt Huang to lead Stripe blockchain Tempo as CEO, stay at Paradigm

As Stripe pushes further into crypto with its planned blockchain Tempo, the fintech giant is getting a heavyweight to lead the project. Matt Huang, the cofounder and managing partner at the influential crypto venture firm Paradigm, will serve as Tempo’s first CEO, according to three sources familiar with the project. Huang is already a Stripe board member.

Huang will stay in his role at Paradigm, according to one of the sources, who, like the others, was not authorized to speak about the matter publicly.

Spokespeople for Paradigm and Stripe declined to comment on Huang’s decision or the blockchain project.

A $91.5 billion private company, Stripe is a leader in the payments space and represents one of the highest-profile Big Tech companies to bet heavily on the crypto industry. Over the past year, it made splashy acquisitions of the stablecoin firm Bridge and the crypto wallet provider Privy. By launching its own blockchain, Stripe seeks full ownership of the tech stack powering its burgeoning stablecoin business. 

Cofounded by Huang, a former Sequoia partner, along with Coinbase cofounder Fred Ehrsam, Paradigm is a leader in the crypto venture space. As of 2024, it had $12.7 billion in assets under management and has backed some of the industry’s top projects, including the decentralized crypto exchange Uniswap, the prediction market Kalshi, and the crypto infrastructure company Fireblocks. 

Through his role on Stripe’s board, Huang has long been a close partner to the fintech firm, but his decision to lead the new blockchain represents a major bet on Stripe’s future dominance in the crowded stablecoin landscape. According to a recent job posting, Tempo will be a “high-performance” protocol that specializes in payments. 

Tempo will be a so-called layer-1 blockchain, meaning it is not constructed atop the blockchain Ethereum or other primary chain, and will be able to run code compatible with Ethereum, according to four sources familiar with the project. The timing of the launch is unknown, and it’s unclear for now whether the blockchain will have its own token. 

Huang’s move will surely raise eyebrows from those in the venture space who question whether the venture investor can balance his roles as the leader of Paradigm and the CEO of an upstart blockchain for one of the premier fintech companies.

Ehrsam, Huang’s cofounder, stepped down from his role as managing partner in 2023 to focus more on his brain interface startup Nudge, though he remains as a general partner. Alana Palmedo also serves as managing partner. Paradigm announced an $850 million third fund in 2024. 

Still, Paradigm has a legacy of incubating its own projects similar to Tempo, including the Ethereum development toolbox Foundry and the open-source crypto bot Artemis. But with top crypto players, including Circle, announcing their own blockchains, Huang’s move to lead Paradigm’s latest company reflects the mounting competition in crypto payments.

Updated to include Alana Palmedo’s role as managing partner.

This story was originally featured on Fortune.com