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Project Overview
Tempo is a high-performance Layer1 blockchain designed for payment, developed by Stripe and Paradigm. With support for all major stablecoins, Tempo enables high-throughput, low-cost global transactions for any business use case.
Latin American cross-border payment app El Dorado completes $9 million Series A funding, led by Paradigm
: Latin American cross-border payment app El Dorado has completed a $9 million Series A funding round, led by venture capital firm Paradigm, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and Verda Ventures. The company stated that its current key growth paths include "non-mainstream payment corridors" such as Brazil and Bolivia. It is already operating in 12 countries, covering markets including Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia, with over 100,000 active users and 5 million processed transactions.Additionally, El Dorado has launched a cross-border payment product for enterprises, incorporating multi-signature and multi-organization architecture, and integrating stablecoin and fiat channels. It operates on a Layer 1 network supported by Tempo, primarily serving real trade scenarios such as electric vehicle imports. (The Block)
Bitwise CIO: The GENIUS Act Opens the Floodgates for Institutional Funding, with Three Enterprise Chains Raising Over $1 Billion Combined
According to The Block, Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise, noted that three enterprise-grade blockchains—Arc (by Circle), Canton Network, and Tempo (by Stripe)—have collectively raised over $1 billion in funding recently. All three funding rounds occurred after the signing of the GENIUS Act in July 2025. Hougan believes this legislation broke a prior regulatory stalemate that had discouraged institutional capital from entering the space. Hougan identified three key signals: First, all three blockchains prioritize native privacy-preserving transactions as a core design feature, addressing institutions’ need for transaction confidentiality. Second, the implementation of the GENIUS Act has significantly reduced regulatory uncertainty; the next critical variable is the pending Clarity Act, from which stablecoins and tokenization infrastructure stand to benefit. Third, these blockchains are backed by top-tier institutions—including Goldman Sachs, Citadel, BlackRock, Stripe, and Visa—marking a stark contrast to Ethereum and Solana, which emerged from grassroots origins. Hougan stated that his firm’s capital remains primarily allocated to native crypto projects, and he believes these emerging enterprise chains will raise the overall competitive bar and attract additional capital inflows.
Bitwise CIO: Privacy Could Be the Next “Killer App,” Arc, Canton, and Tempo Exceed $1 Billion in Total Funding
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan stated that privacy is becoming a core infrastructure direction for the next phase of the crypto industry. Recently, three institutional-grade blockchains focused on stablecoins and asset tokenization—Arc, Canton, and Tempo—have accumulated over $1 billion in total funding, indicating a rapidly growing demand from institutions for "privacy-friendly on-chain financial systems."Among them, stablecoin issuer Circle contributed $222 million in funding for Arc, giving it a valuation of approximately $3 billion; Digital Asset’s Canton blockchain is reportedly seeking $300 million in funding at a $2 billion valuation; and Tempo, backed by Stripe and Paradigm, has previously completed $500 million in funding at a valuation of $5 billion.Hougan noted that this funding wave reflects three major trends: the gradual clarification of the U.S. regulatory framework, increased institutional demand for on-chain privacy, and intensified competition among new blockchain networks supported by large enterprises. Current public blockchains still face structural trade-offs between speed, cost, security, and privacy. However, scenarios involving stablecoins and RWA tokenization require systems that simultaneously offer high performance, compliance, and privacy, making “verifiable privacy” a critical prerequisite for institutional adoption of on-chain finance.Hougan further stated that, for enterprises, “all transactions being publicly broadcast” is not an advantage but a potential flaw. In the future, users and institutions may find it increasingly difficult to accept a fully transparent on-chain financial environment. He believes that privacy capabilities could become the “killer app” driving the crypto industry into its next phase of mainstream adoption. Additionally, following the passage of the U.S. Genius Act in 2025, regulatory certainty has significantly increased, providing a clearer policy foundation for institutional funds to enter the crypto infrastructure space. (CoinDesk)
Nava Secures $8.3M Seed Round Led by Polychain and Archetype
According to Fortune, blockchain startup Nava has announced the completion of an $8.3 million seed funding round, co-led by Polychain and Archetype, aiming to prevent anomalous operations by AI financial agents through a custody and verification framework. Nava’s solution locks funds via custodial services; once an AI agent proposes a transaction, an on-chain verification mechanism assesses whether the transaction aligns with the user’s intent—only compliant transactions are executed, while non-compliant ones leave funds in custody. All verification decisions are publicly recorded on the blockchain for reference by other AIs. Nava currently operates as a Layer 3 blockchain on Arbitrum and plans to deploy a parallel chain on Tempo; it will also issue a native stablecoin in the future to support protocol operations. Nava’s infrastructure serves both individual users and institutions, enhancing asset security and transaction transparency.
Visa, Stripe, and Zodia Custody Become Early Validators of the Tempo Payment Blockchain
According to The Block, Visa, Stripe, and Zodia Custody—a digital asset custody firm backed by Standard Chartered Bank—have become the first validators on the Tempo payment blockchain. Tempo is an Ethereum-compatible Layer 1 blockchain designed specifically for high-throughput payments and stablecoin settlement, primarily targeting large institutions. Validators are responsible for verifying, ordering, and finalizing on-chain transactions, and are typically mature organizations with global operational capabilities. Tempo was incubated by Stripe and Paradigm, launched its private testnet in September 2025, and closed a $500 million Series A funding round in October at a valuation of approximately $5 billion. Recently, Tempo introduced its “Agent Payments” protocol—executed by AI agents—and has attracted infrastructure integrations including RedStone.
Visa Partners with Artemis to Release On-Chain Data Report on AI Agent Payments
According to Visa's official website, Visa and Artemis jointly released a report that deeply analyzes the current status and trends of AI agent payments based on real-time on-chain data. The report indicates that AI agent payments are divided into two categories: one is "macro commerce" where agents replace users to complete tasks like booking tickets and subscriptions, similar to traditional e-commerce payments; the other is "micro commerce" such as high-frequency, low-value API calls between software, where single transaction amounts are typically less than 1 cent. On-chain data shows that the open protocol x402, incubated by Coinbase and Cloudflare and now hosted by the Linux Foundation, has processed approximately 109 million transactions since launching in May 2025, with an adjusted transaction volume of about $15 million, mainly active on the Base, Solana, and Polygon chains; the Machine Payment Protocol (MPP), jointly built by Stripe and Tempo with Visa's contribution, launched in mid-March 2026 and completed approximately 115,000 transactions within weeks, with a settlement amount of about $25,000. The report notes that blockchain settlement costs have dropped to extremely low levels, making small payments in the 1-cent to 1-dollar range economically feasible for the first time, but agent payments still face significant challenges at the legal and regulatory level regarding trust, liability attribution, and dispute resolution. Visa stated that its goal is to build a unified foundation that simultaneously supports card-native trust authorization and machine-native settlement
AllUnity Launches SEKAU, a Swedish Krona Stablecoin
Digital asset company AllUnity has launched SEKAU, a stablecoin backed by the Swedish Krona. The token is issued in accordance with the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) and operates as an electronic money token under MiCA.SEKAU is backed by segregated Swedish Krona reserves and is designed for institutional settlement and cross-border payments. Banking Circle will hold and manage the reserves backing the token, with Sweden's Marginalen Bank serving as the banking partner for the launch, while Trust Anchor Group provides infrastructure integration.SEKAU's initial launch covers five blockchain networks: Ethereum, Solana, Base, Tempo, and Polygon. AllUnity stated that it plans to expand SEKAU to more blockchain networks later in 2026. (Cointelegraph)
Analysis: Crypto Becoming Default Payment Layer for AI Agents, Stablecoin Advantages Highlighted
crypto market maker and investment firm Keyrock has released a new report indicating that as traditional bank card payment systems struggle to meet micro-payment needs, blockchain-based stablecoin payment rails are gradually becoming the default payment layer for AI agents.The report shows that between May 2025 and April 2026, AI agents have completed over 176 million transactions through on-chain infrastructure, settling more than $73 million.The so-called "Agentic Payments" refer to AI software that can autonomously purchase data, computing power, API access, or AI services without requiring human authorization for each individual transaction. For example, an AI trading agent can continuously and automatically buy market data, cloud computing resources, or AI analysis services. Keyrock believes this growth rate may even surpass the early explosive phase of stablecoins.Currently, Coinbase's x402 protocol has emerged as one of the leading crypto-native machine payment solutions, allowing AI agents to directly pay for on-chain data analysis, cloud services, and other resources using USDC, without the need for accounts or subscription systems.Data shows that approximately 76% of AI agent payment amounts fall below the common 30-cent fixed fee threshold of traditional bank cards, with most transactions ranging from just 1 to 10 cents. This makes traditional payment networks unsuitable for machine-to-machine micropayments. In contrast, on chains like Base and Tempo, the settlement cost for stablecoins is "less than one cent."However, regulation may still become a limiting factor for industry growth. The report points out that new regulatory frameworks, including Europe's MiCA, the US's GENIUS Act, and the EU's AI Act, have yet to directly cover critical issues such as autonomous transactions by AI agents, liability attribution, and identity authentication. (CoinDesk)
Former Farcaster founder and Tempo team member Dan Romero: Tempo could achieve decentralization within 2 years, Asian market lead is now in place
recently, Liu Feng, former founder of ChainNews, and Dan Romero, former Farcaster founder and Tempo team member, engaged in a series of discussions on topics such as payments, cryptocurrency, and AI Agents. During the conversation, Dan Romero addressed some key questions raised by both Liu Feng and the public. The highlights are as follows:1. The reason for the shift from idealistic socialfi products to public chains dominated by large enterprises: "The crypto landscape has changed. Now we have stablecoins and crypto (more native) as two distinct things." Tempo and Playbook's goal is: "Starting with payment services, collaborating with large, established companies to help them conduct on-chain payments and advance their own business development. Then, by integrating DeFi applications, we will launch yield-generating products that end users actually need."2. "Tempo has no meme coins or anything similar, which is a good thing for a conservative bank. Tempo has other characteristics: compliance and privacy. This might not be as exciting for crypto natives, but it is very attractive to banks."3. Regarding core use cases for payments: "Platform-based marketplaces and cross-border payments are two clear stablecoin use cases."4. Micropayment-driven agent-to-agent payments are worth anticipating; stablecoin-based micropayments will usher in a new spring. Regarding payments between agents: "Traditional payment methods are too costly to use at scale. This level of granularity and speed can only be achieved through cryptocurrencies and streaming payments."5. "I deeply respect Ethereum's adherence to cypherpunk principles regarding decentralization. I really like their new mission; it's good for the world. But the reality is that businesses don't care about these things; they care about whether it can solve real problems." "If Tempo can attract 1 million businesses and 1 billion consumers, it won't be a bad thing for either cryptocurrency or Ethereum."6. Regarding Tempo's decentralization process: Hoping to achieve it within two years. "We are not a bunch of suit-wearing outsiders; we truly understand the space. We know how important decentralization is, but at the same time, we are very pragmatic. I guarantee that we will actually drive application adoption."7. Regarding the Machine Payment Protocol (MPP) and the X402 protocol, AI Agents don't care about the differences between them. The key to satisfying them is the elimination of human intervention.8. Tempo's Asian market lead is now in place and will be operating out of Singapore.
Bitwise CIO: The GENIUS Act Opens the Floodgates for Institutional Funding, with Three Enterprise Chains Raising Over $1 Billion Combined
According to The Block, Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise, noted that three enterprise-grade blockchains—Arc (by Circle), Canton Network, and Tempo (by Stripe)—have collectively raised over $1 billion in funding recently. All three funding rounds occurred after the signing of the GENIUS Act in July 2025. Hougan believes this legislation broke a prior regulatory stalemate that had discouraged institutional capital from entering the space. Hougan identified three key signals: First, all three blockchains prioritize native privacy-preserving transactions as a core design feature, addressing institutions’ need for transaction confidentiality. Second, the implementation of the GENIUS Act has significantly reduced regulatory uncertainty; the next critical variable is the pending Clarity Act, from which stablecoins and tokenization infrastructure stand to benefit. Third, these blockchains are backed by top-tier institutions—including Goldman Sachs, Citadel, BlackRock, Stripe, and Visa—marking a stark contrast to Ethereum and Solana, which emerged from grassroots origins. Hougan stated that his firm’s capital remains primarily allocated to native crypto projects, and he believes these emerging enterprise chains will raise the overall competitive bar and attract additional capital inflows.
Bitwise CIO: Privacy Could Be the Next “Killer App,” Arc, Canton, and Tempo Exceed $1 Billion in Total Funding
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan stated that privacy is becoming a core infrastructure direction for the next phase of the crypto industry. Recently, three institutional-grade blockchains focused on stablecoins and asset tokenization—Arc, Canton, and Tempo—have accumulated over $1 billion in total funding, indicating a rapidly growing demand from institutions for "privacy-friendly on-chain financial systems."Among them, stablecoin issuer Circle contributed $222 million in funding for Arc, giving it a valuation of approximately $3 billion; Digital Asset’s Canton blockchain is reportedly seeking $300 million in funding at a $2 billion valuation; and Tempo, backed by Stripe and Paradigm, has previously completed $500 million in funding at a valuation of $5 billion.Hougan noted that this funding wave reflects three major trends: the gradual clarification of the U.S. regulatory framework, increased institutional demand for on-chain privacy, and intensified competition among new blockchain networks supported by large enterprises. Current public blockchains still face structural trade-offs between speed, cost, security, and privacy. However, scenarios involving stablecoins and RWA tokenization require systems that simultaneously offer high performance, compliance, and privacy, making “verifiable privacy” a critical prerequisite for institutional adoption of on-chain finance.Hougan further stated that, for enterprises, “all transactions being publicly broadcast” is not an advantage but a potential flaw. In the future, users and institutions may find it increasingly difficult to accept a fully transparent on-chain financial environment. He believes that privacy capabilities could become the “killer app” driving the crypto industry into its next phase of mainstream adoption. Additionally, following the passage of the U.S. Genius Act in 2025, regulatory certainty has significantly increased, providing a clearer policy foundation for institutional funds to enter the crypto infrastructure space. (CoinDesk)
Analysis: Crypto Becoming Default Payment Layer for AI Agents, Stablecoin Advantages Highlighted
crypto market maker and investment firm Keyrock has released a new report indicating that as traditional bank card payment systems struggle to meet micro-payment needs, blockchain-based stablecoin payment rails are gradually becoming the default payment layer for AI agents.The report shows that between May 2025 and April 2026, AI agents have completed over 176 million transactions through on-chain infrastructure, settling more than $73 million.The so-called "Agentic Payments" refer to AI software that can autonomously purchase data, computing power, API access, or AI services without requiring human authorization for each individual transaction. For example, an AI trading agent can continuously and automatically buy market data, cloud computing resources, or AI analysis services. Keyrock believes this growth rate may even surpass the early explosive phase of stablecoins.Currently, Coinbase's x402 protocol has emerged as one of the leading crypto-native machine payment solutions, allowing AI agents to directly pay for on-chain data analysis, cloud services, and other resources using USDC, without the need for accounts or subscription systems.Data shows that approximately 76% of AI agent payment amounts fall below the common 30-cent fixed fee threshold of traditional bank cards, with most transactions ranging from just 1 to 10 cents. This makes traditional payment networks unsuitable for machine-to-machine micropayments. In contrast, on chains like Base and Tempo, the settlement cost for stablecoins is "less than one cent."However, regulation may still become a limiting factor for industry growth. The report points out that new regulatory frameworks, including Europe's MiCA, the US's GENIUS Act, and the EU's AI Act, have yet to directly cover critical issues such as autonomous transactions by AI agents, liability attribution, and identity authentication. (CoinDesk)
Bitwise CIO: The GENIUS Act Opens the Floodgates for Institutional Funding, with Three Enterprise Chains Raising Over $1 Billion Combined
According to The Block, Matt Hougan, Chief Investment Officer at Bitwise, noted that three enterprise-grade blockchains—Arc (by Circle), Canton Network, and Tempo (by Stripe)—have collectively raised over $1 billion in funding recently. All three funding rounds occurred after the signing of the GENIUS Act in July 2025. Hougan believes this legislation broke a prior regulatory stalemate that had discouraged institutional capital from entering the space. Hougan identified three key signals: First, all three blockchains prioritize native privacy-preserving transactions as a core design feature, addressing institutions’ need for transaction confidentiality. Second, the implementation of the GENIUS Act has significantly reduced regulatory uncertainty; the next critical variable is the pending Clarity Act, from which stablecoins and tokenization infrastructure stand to benefit. Third, these blockchains are backed by top-tier institutions—including Goldman Sachs, Citadel, BlackRock, Stripe, and Visa—marking a stark contrast to Ethereum and Solana, which emerged from grassroots origins. Hougan stated that his firm’s capital remains primarily allocated to native crypto projects, and he believes these emerging enterprise chains will raise the overall competitive bar and attract additional capital inflows.
Visa Partners with Artemis to Release On-Chain Data Report on AI Agent Payments
According to Visa's official website, Visa and Artemis jointly released a report that deeply analyzes the current status and trends of AI agent payments based on real-time on-chain data. The report indicates that AI agent payments are divided into two categories: one is "macro commerce" where agents replace users to complete tasks like booking tickets and subscriptions, similar to traditional e-commerce payments; the other is "micro commerce" such as high-frequency, low-value API calls between software, where single transaction amounts are typically less than 1 cent. On-chain data shows that the open protocol x402, incubated by Coinbase and Cloudflare and now hosted by the Linux Foundation, has processed approximately 109 million transactions since launching in May 2025, with an adjusted transaction volume of about $15 million, mainly active on the Base, Solana, and Polygon chains; the Machine Payment Protocol (MPP), jointly built by Stripe and Tempo with Visa's contribution, launched in mid-March 2026 and completed approximately 115,000 transactions within weeks, with a settlement amount of about $25,000. The report notes that blockchain settlement costs have dropped to extremely low levels, making small payments in the 1-cent to 1-dollar range economically feasible for the first time, but agent payments still face significant challenges at the legal and regulatory level regarding trust, liability attribution, and dispute resolution. Visa stated that its goal is to build a unified foundation that simultaneously supports card-native trust authorization and machine-native settlement
AllUnity Launches SEKAU, a Swedish Krona Stablecoin
Digital asset company AllUnity has launched SEKAU, a stablecoin backed by the Swedish Krona. The token is issued in accordance with the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) and operates as an electronic money token under MiCA.SEKAU is backed by segregated Swedish Krona reserves and is designed for institutional settlement and cross-border payments. Banking Circle will hold and manage the reserves backing the token, with Sweden's Marginalen Bank serving as the banking partner for the launch, while Trust Anchor Group provides infrastructure integration.SEKAU's initial launch covers five blockchain networks: Ethereum, Solana, Base, Tempo, and Polygon. AllUnity stated that it plans to expand SEKAU to more blockchain networks later in 2026. (Cointelegraph)
Latin American cross-border payment app El Dorado completes $9 million Series A funding, led by Paradigm
: Latin American cross-border payment app El Dorado has completed a $9 million Series A funding round, led by venture capital firm Paradigm, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and Verda Ventures. The company stated that its current key growth paths include "non-mainstream payment corridors" such as Brazil and Bolivia. It is already operating in 12 countries, covering markets including Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia, with over 100,000 active users and 5 million processed transactions.Additionally, El Dorado has launched a cross-border payment product for enterprises, incorporating multi-signature and multi-organization architecture, and integrating stablecoin and fiat channels. It operates on a Layer 1 network supported by Tempo, primarily serving real trade scenarios such as electric vehicle imports. (The Block)
Paradigm announces open-sourcing its self-developed AI Agent Centaur, stating it has completely transformed the fund's workflow
OdailyOdaily Planet Daily News Paradigm officially announced the open-sourcing of Centaur, a multi-user collaborative, secure, self-hosted AI Agent Runtime co-developed by Paradigm and Tempo.Paradigm stated that since January of this year, the fund has been using Centaur internally, and it has completely changed the team's working methods, covering various task scenarios such as investment, engineering, design, recruitment, events, and customer service.Centaur can be understood as a "shared Agent" that can call tools, run continuously for hours or even days, continue working after system restarts, and use real credentials to complete operations without ever touching raw secrets. Users can interact with it via Slack or call it through an API.
Tempo Integrates DeFi Lending Market Morpho
Tempo has announced the integration of the DeFi lending market Morpho, bringing a $7.5 billion lending market to its network. The project's main business is to provide fintech companies and enterprises developing on the Tempo chain with the ability to lend directly on-chain and earn yields on idle stablecoins.The lending system for Morpho on Tempo will feature customized markets provided by risk firms Gauntlet and Sentora, and will use RedStone oracles for pricing. (coindesk)
Bitwise CIO: Privacy Could Be the Next “Killer App,” Arc, Canton, and Tempo Exceed $1 Billion in Total Funding
Bitwise Chief Investment Officer Matt Hougan stated that privacy is becoming a core infrastructure direction for the next phase of the crypto industry. Recently, three institutional-grade blockchains focused on stablecoins and asset tokenization—Arc, Canton, and Tempo—have accumulated over $1 billion in total funding, indicating a rapidly growing demand from institutions for "privacy-friendly on-chain financial systems."Among them, stablecoin issuer Circle contributed $222 million in funding for Arc, giving it a valuation of approximately $3 billion; Digital Asset’s Canton blockchain is reportedly seeking $300 million in funding at a $2 billion valuation; and Tempo, backed by Stripe and Paradigm, has previously completed $500 million in funding at a valuation of $5 billion.Hougan noted that this funding wave reflects three major trends: the gradual clarification of the U.S. regulatory framework, increased institutional demand for on-chain privacy, and intensified competition among new blockchain networks supported by large enterprises. Current public blockchains still face structural trade-offs between speed, cost, security, and privacy. However, scenarios involving stablecoins and RWA tokenization require systems that simultaneously offer high performance, compliance, and privacy, making “verifiable privacy” a critical prerequisite for institutional adoption of on-chain finance.Hougan further stated that, for enterprises, “all transactions being publicly broadcast” is not an advantage but a potential flaw. In the future, users and institutions may find it increasingly difficult to accept a fully transparent on-chain financial environment. He believes that privacy capabilities could become the “killer app” driving the crypto industry into its next phase of mainstream adoption. Additionally, following the passage of the U.S. Genius Act in 2025, regulatory certainty has significantly increased, providing a clearer policy foundation for institutional funds to enter the crypto infrastructure space. (CoinDesk)
Related news
MoneyGram Modernizes Cross-Border Payments with Blockchain Infrastructure
Odaily reports: MoneyGram CEO Anthony Soohoo stated that the company's blockchain strategy focuses on modernizing cross-border payments. By leveraging blockchain infrastructure, the company aims to make remittances faster, cheaper, and more transparent, all while ensuring customers remain unaware of the underlying technology. Stellar remains MoneyGram's core blockchain partner. MoneyGram is expanding its blockchain presence by serving as a validator on Solana and Tempo, and views its MGUSD stablecoin as a means to build more financial products within its own ecosystem.
Visa Partners with Artemis to Release On-Chain Data Report on AI Agent Payments
According to Visa's official website, Visa and Artemis jointly released a report that deeply analyzes the current status and trends of AI agent payments based on real-time on-chain data. The report indicates that AI agent payments are divided into two categories: one is "macro commerce" where agents replace users to complete tasks like booking tickets and subscriptions, similar to traditional e-commerce payments; the other is "micro commerce" such as high-frequency, low-value API calls between software, where single transaction amounts are typically less than 1 cent. On-chain data shows that the open protocol x402, incubated by Coinbase and Cloudflare and now hosted by the Linux Foundation, has processed approximately 109 million transactions since launching in May 2025, with an adjusted transaction volume of about $15 million, mainly active on the Base, Solana, and Polygon chains; the Machine Payment Protocol (MPP), jointly built by Stripe and Tempo with Visa's contribution, launched in mid-March 2026 and completed approximately 115,000 transactions within weeks, with a settlement amount of about $25,000. The report notes that blockchain settlement costs have dropped to extremely low levels, making small payments in the 1-cent to 1-dollar range economically feasible for the first time, but agent payments still face significant challenges at the legal and regulatory level regarding trust, liability attribution, and dispute resolution. Visa stated that its goal is to build a unified foundation that simultaneously supports card-native trust authorization and machine-native settlement
AllUnity Launches SEKAU, a Swedish Krona Stablecoin
Digital asset company AllUnity has launched SEKAU, a stablecoin backed by the Swedish Krona. The token is issued in accordance with the EU's Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) and operates as an electronic money token under MiCA.SEKAU is backed by segregated Swedish Krona reserves and is designed for institutional settlement and cross-border payments. Banking Circle will hold and manage the reserves backing the token, with Sweden's Marginalen Bank serving as the banking partner for the launch, while Trust Anchor Group provides infrastructure integration.SEKAU's initial launch covers five blockchain networks: Ethereum, Solana, Base, Tempo, and Polygon. AllUnity stated that it plans to expand SEKAU to more blockchain networks later in 2026. (Cointelegraph)
Latin American cross-border payment app El Dorado completes $9 million Series A funding, led by Paradigm
: Latin American cross-border payment app El Dorado has completed a $9 million Series A funding round, led by venture capital firm Paradigm, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and Verda Ventures. The company stated that its current key growth paths include "non-mainstream payment corridors" such as Brazil and Bolivia. It is already operating in 12 countries, covering markets including Argentina, Brazil, and Colombia, with over 100,000 active users and 5 million processed transactions.Additionally, El Dorado has launched a cross-border payment product for enterprises, incorporating multi-signature and multi-organization architecture, and integrating stablecoin and fiat channels. It operates on a Layer 1 network supported by Tempo, primarily serving real trade scenarios such as electric vehicle imports. (The Block)
Analysis: Crypto Becoming Default Payment Layer for AI Agents, Stablecoin Advantages Highlighted
crypto market maker and investment firm Keyrock has released a new report indicating that as traditional bank card payment systems struggle to meet micro-payment needs, blockchain-based stablecoin payment rails are gradually becoming the default payment layer for AI agents.The report shows that between May 2025 and April 2026, AI agents have completed over 176 million transactions through on-chain infrastructure, settling more than $73 million.The so-called "Agentic Payments" refer to AI software that can autonomously purchase data, computing power, API access, or AI services without requiring human authorization for each individual transaction. For example, an AI trading agent can continuously and automatically buy market data, cloud computing resources, or AI analysis services. Keyrock believes this growth rate may even surpass the early explosive phase of stablecoins.Currently, Coinbase's x402 protocol has emerged as one of the leading crypto-native machine payment solutions, allowing AI agents to directly pay for on-chain data analysis, cloud services, and other resources using USDC, without the need for accounts or subscription systems.Data shows that approximately 76% of AI agent payment amounts fall below the common 30-cent fixed fee threshold of traditional bank cards, with most transactions ranging from just 1 to 10 cents. This makes traditional payment networks unsuitable for machine-to-machine micropayments. In contrast, on chains like Base and Tempo, the settlement cost for stablecoins is "less than one cent."However, regulation may still become a limiting factor for industry growth. The report points out that new regulatory frameworks, including Europe's MiCA, the US's GENIUS Act, and the EU's AI Act, have yet to directly cover critical issues such as autonomous transactions by AI agents, liability attribution, and identity authentication. (CoinDesk)
Former Farcaster founder and Tempo team member Dan Romero: Tempo could achieve decentralization within 2 years, Asian market lead is now in place
recently, Liu Feng, former founder of ChainNews, and Dan Romero, former Farcaster founder and Tempo team member, engaged in a series of discussions on topics such as payments, cryptocurrency, and AI Agents. During the conversation, Dan Romero addressed some key questions raised by both Liu Feng and the public. The highlights are as follows:1. The reason for the shift from idealistic socialfi products to public chains dominated by large enterprises: "The crypto landscape has changed. Now we have stablecoins and crypto (more native) as two distinct things." Tempo and Playbook's goal is: "Starting with payment services, collaborating with large, established companies to help them conduct on-chain payments and advance their own business development. Then, by integrating DeFi applications, we will launch yield-generating products that end users actually need."2. "Tempo has no meme coins or anything similar, which is a good thing for a conservative bank. Tempo has other characteristics: compliance and privacy. This might not be as exciting for crypto natives, but it is very attractive to banks."3. Regarding core use cases for payments: "Platform-based marketplaces and cross-border payments are two clear stablecoin use cases."4. Micropayment-driven agent-to-agent payments are worth anticipating; stablecoin-based micropayments will usher in a new spring. Regarding payments between agents: "Traditional payment methods are too costly to use at scale. This level of granularity and speed can only be achieved through cryptocurrencies and streaming payments."5. "I deeply respect Ethereum's adherence to cypherpunk principles regarding decentralization. I really like their new mission; it's good for the world. But the reality is that businesses don't care about these things; they care about whether it can solve real problems." "If Tempo can attract 1 million businesses and 1 billion consumers, it won't be a bad thing for either cryptocurrency or Ethereum."6. Regarding Tempo's decentralization process: Hoping to achieve it within two years. "We are not a bunch of suit-wearing outsiders; we truly understand the space. We know how important decentralization is, but at the same time, we are very pragmatic. I guarantee that we will actually drive application adoption."7. Regarding the Machine Payment Protocol (MPP) and the X402 protocol, AI Agents don't care about the differences between them. The key to satisfying them is the elimination of human intervention.8. Tempo's Asian market lead is now in place and will be operating out of Singapore.