Stripe CEO Patrick Collison stated that stablecoins are becoming more popular as they provide businesses with faster, cheaper, and more reliable payment options compared to traditional systems.
His comments were made in a Hacker News thread on Sept. 5, 2025, following the launch of Tempo, a blockchain developed by Stripe and Paradigm specifically for stablecoin transactions.
In his initial response regarding Tempo, Collison expressed that Stripe had been “disappointed with crypto’s payments utility for most of the past decade.” However, he noted a shift in perspective as more companies began utilizing stablecoins for everyday financial transactions.
Collison highlighted Bridge, the stablecoin infrastructure provider acquired by Stripe in October 2024. He mentioned SpaceX’s use of it for financial management in remote markets, DolarApp in Latin America for banking services, and an Argentinian bike importer utilizing Stripe’s dashboard for supplier payments.
“These businesses are not using crypto because it’s crypto or for speculative advantage,” Collison remarked. “They’re conducting real-world financial activities and have discovered that crypto (via stablecoins) is easier, faster, and superior to the existing system.”
When asked if people would eventually “pay with Tempo,” Collison indicated that the blockchain is designed to operate behind the scenes. He compared it to financial messaging systems like SWIFT or ACH, noting that while consumers may not engage with Tempo directly, they would benefit from its efficiency. He referred to it as a “decentralized, internet-scale SWIFT,” an analogy he called imperfect but useful.
In response to another question about why businesses find crypto payments attractive, Collison outlined five reasons companies prefer stablecoins: nearly instant settlement that lowers trapped liquidity, cost savings compared to card payments, improved reliability for cross-border transfers, reduced currency conversions, and direct on-chain access to U.S. dollars.
He dismissed the notion that adoption primarily stems from regulatory advantages, asserting that stablecoins are now explicitly regulated in the U.S. under the GENIUS Act and in Europe under MiCA. Collison argued that their attractiveness lies in alleviating the challenges associated with high-volume money movement.
In the Thursday announcement, Tempo was described as a “payments-first” blockchain specifically constructed for stablecoins, merging Stripe’s global payments expertise with Paradigm’s cryptocurrency research. The companies revealed the network’s aim to provide infrastructure customized for practical payment needs as stablecoins transition into mainstream usage.
Tempo is designed with features such as predictable low fees, optional privacy, and the ability to pay both transaction and gas costs using any stablecoin. It features a dedicated payments lane with capabilities like memos and access lists and is EVM-compatible, built on the Reth client. Stripe and Paradigm claimed that the blockchain is equipped to handle over 100,000 transactions per second with sub-second finality.
The network aims to facilitate global payouts and payroll, remittances, tokenized deposits that can be settled anytime, embedded financial accounts, microtransactions, and what the companies refer to as “agentic payments.”
Stripe and Paradigm also emphasized governance, stating that Tempo will function as a neutral platform for stablecoins, secured by a diverse and independent validator set, with plans for fully permissionless validation in the future.
The project launched with a wide array of design partners, including Visa, Standard Chartered, Deutsche Bank, Nubank, Revolut, Shopify, OpenAI, Anthropic, Coupang, DoorDash, Lead Bank, and Mercury.
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