Tempo, the payments-focused blockchain incubated by Stripe and cryptocurrency project firm Paradigm, has launched its mainnet, opening endpoints to public developers.
Also, blockchain co-authored the Automated Payments Protocol (MPP), an open standard for autonomous agent-to-agent payments using Stripe.
The mainnet launch follows a public testnet launched in December 2025, and comes at a time when both startups and established payments players alike are scrambling to claim their market share by laying out the infrastructure layer for Proxy tradewhich has been described as one of the next best things for the sector.
Tempo raised $500 million at a $5 billion valuation in October 2025 and has attracted design partners including Anthropic, DoorDash, Mastercard, Nubank, OpenAI, Ramp, Revolut, Shopify, Standard Chartered and Visa.
It’s not without competition, however, as USDC issuer Circle is developing its own payments-focused Layer-1 chain, Arc, whose testnet was launched in October with participation from Visa, BlackRock, and Goldman Sachs.
Matt Huangco-founder of Tempo and managing partner at Paradigm, acknowledged that the market is still nascent. “Dealer payments are very early, and we’re still figuring out the best way to structure them,” he told Fortune.
What does Tempo’s Automated Payments Protocol (MPP) do?
MPP It is designed to give AI agents a standard, non-railroad mechanism to programmatically coordinate payments. Instead of each service inventing its own billing flow, the protocol defines how agents request, authorize and settle payments with external services, across stablecoins, cards and other payment methods simultaneously.
With MPP, thousands of small transactions can be aggregated into a single settlement, making true pay-per-use pricing applicable Internet-wide.
Stripe has expanded MPP to support cards, wallets, and other payment methods on its platform; Visa has expanded its reach to include card-based payments across its network; Lightspark has expanded it to include Bitcoin Lightning payments.
A directory of more than 100 compatible services is being launched, including model providers, developer infrastructure and data platforms, along with the mainnet.
Early Stripe MPP integrations include Browserbase, which lets agents run headless browsers and pay per session, and Prospect Butcher Co., which lets agents order food for delivery.
Cloudflare also supports MPP, which Huang also acknowledged.
MPP enters an already contested field with Coinbase’s x402 protocol, which integrates stablecoin micropayments directly into the HTTP communications layer and is backed by an alliance that includes Cloudflare, Circle, tapeAnd Amazon Web Services.
Analysts at McKinsey estimate that AI agents could mediate between $3 trillion and $5 trillion in global consumer commerce by 2030.
The AI agent race is fueling the institutional rush for stablecoins
The mainnet launch comes twenty-four hours after Mastercard agreed to acquire London-based stablecoin infrastructure company BVNK for up to $1.8 billion, the largest stablecoin acquisition ever, surpassing Stripe’s $1.1 billion purchase of Bridge in February 2025.
The deal aims to connect on-chain stablecoin payments to MasterCard’s global network for cross-border remittances, remittances and business-to-business transactions.
“We expect most financial institutions and fintech companies to offer digital currency services in due course,” he said. John Lambertchief product officer at Mastercard, in a statement. Analysts at William Blair described the acquisition as “further confirmation of the stablecoin market for cross-border trading.”
The two announcements indicate in many ways that the competition for stablecoin payment infrastructure is no longer in the experimental stage and that stakeholders in this space are already building for the present and future as AI agents routinely use stablecoins as they carry out tasks across the Internet.
