Dan Romero, co-founder of the decentralized social protocol Farcaster and a former Coinbase executive, is joining Tempo, a layer 1 blockchain focused on stablecoin payments.

I'm thrilled to announce that I'm joining @tempo!

Stablecoins are a generational opportunity and I'm excited to work with @matthuang, @gakonst and the rest of the team to make them mainstream.

— Dan Romero (@dwr) February 9, 2026

The news comes after Farcaster was sold to Neynar, a web3 infrastructure company, in late January 2026. The acquisition hands over Farcaster’s codebase, app, smart contracts, and AI project Clanker.

Tempo, incubated by payment processor Stripe and crypto venture firm Paradigm, secured $500 million in Series A funding in October 2025 at a $5 billion valuation, with Greenoaks and Thrive Capital leading the round.

Romero’s appointment continues the rapid expansion at the company, which grew its workforce from 15 employees in September 2025 to between 40 and 50 by November of that year.

Tempo launched its private testnet in September 2025, targeting enterprise applications such as cross-border remittances, payroll processing, and microtransactions.

The company counts OpenAI, Visa, and Shopify among its design partners as it builds infrastructure meant to compete with established stablecoin issuers.

Stripe, valued at over $90 billion, has pursued an aggressive stablecoin strategy that includes its $1.1 billion acquisition of Bridge and the purchase of wallet provider Privy.

Paradigm, led by Matt Huang, has positioned itself as a major backer of blockchain infrastructure projects seeking institutional adoption.