In short
- Stripe’s blockchain project Tempo has reportedly raised $500 million at a $5 billion valuation in a Series A round co-led by Greenoaks and Thrive Capital.
- Tempo also hired Dankrad Feist, a leading researcher from the Ethereum Foundation, sparking debate in the crypto community.
- While Vitalik Buterin supported Feist’s move, others criticized it as a blow to open source ideals in favor of enterprise blockchains.
In a major show of force for Stripe’s fledgling blockchain project Tempo, the company has reportedly raised $500 million — and also picked up one of the Ethereum network’s most prominent core developers.
Tempo raised the money in a Series A round that now values the project at $5 billion, according to a report Friday in Fortune. The round was reportedly co-led by venture capital firm Greenoaks and Joshua Kushner’s Thrive Capital.
Stripe declined to comment Declutter. Greenoaks and Thrive did not immediately respond Declutter‘s requests for comment regarding the pay increase. Paradigm, the crypto venture company that incubated Tempo alongside Stripe, also did not immediately respond to an inquiry.
While the funding round marks a significant early win for Pace– a layer 1 blockchain that will support payment processor Stripe’s aggressive move into crypto – it wasn’t the biggest news about the project that rocked Crypto Twitter on Friday.
That was the revelation that Tempo successfully poached Dankrad Feist, a key contributor to the Ethereum network, to build out Stripe’s new chain.
Feist, a top researcher at the Ethereum Foundation, revealed Friday that he had accepted Tempo’s offer but will remain a research advisor for a handful of strategic initiatives at the nonprofit.
I am happy to announce that I am joining Tempo. The past year was a turning point for crypto, where we finally saw the contours of our vision become reality. While payments were central in the early days of crypto, I see a special opportunity…
— Dankrad Feist (@dankrad) October 17, 2025
“I believe the real world’s moment is now, and I want to make sure we don’t miss this window to impact the lives of normal people around the world,” Feist saidarguing that his decision to join Tempo will allow him to bring crypto payments to the masses more effectively.
While the move was publicly blessed by Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, who desired Although he was very lucky in his new job, other members of the crypto community were much less enthusiastic.
“Dankrad leaving Ethereum is a terrible foray into open-source versus enterprise blockchains,” said Andy, co-host of The Rollup, a popular crypto-focused podcast, said. “Big L for the entire community.”
Gwart, another popular crypto influencer, compared Feist’s career changed after environmental activist Greta Thunberg accepted a job with oil giant British Petroleum.
Laurence Day, co-founder of Wildcat, a decentralized Ethereum lending protocol, compared news of Feist’s new gig to a controversy that arose last year when the software developer and another colleague, Justin Drake, accepted consulting positions at Ethereum and took over the Eigenlayer protocol in addition to their duties at the Ethereum Foundation.
The backlash from the community about potential conflicts of interest was so strong that Feist and Drake both to leave the advisor positions.
“That Eigenlayer consultancy looks pretty tame in comparison now, doesn’t it?’ Day today brought back memories.
Ryan Sean Adams, another prominent crypto influencer and well-known Ethereum backer, joked that Friday’s news did not break his faith in the decentralization-oriented network, but that such a day could come soon.
“If Vitalik joins Tempo, I’m out,” Adams said.
Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication to reflect that Stripe declined comment.
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