Latest in Blockchain | December 10, 2025

Welcome to the Meridian Update. For those who don’t know, we’ve also been delivering the news in video form @meridianupdate on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok. Unfortunately, we only got @meridian_update on Twitter. Let’s dive in.

What’s a Tempo?

A new blockchain network.

A question you might ask is, “And what does this blockchain network do?” Another is, “Do we need another blockchain network?” These are questions we cannot answer.

Blockchain networks launch all the time. Normally, it’s nothing particularly special. But Tempo is a joint project between Stripe and Paradigm. Stripe is a huge player in payments processing. Paradigm is an investment firm that many people in the on-chain world know about.

This has made Tempo special. Or better said, this has made Tempo a hot topic of conversation on Crypto Twitter since Paradigm and Stripe unveiled the project in early September. That makes it worthy of mentioning in the Meridian Update.

The Meridian Update mentions the Solana network, another blockchain network, almost every day. This is because the Solana network has reached the point where it has real usage, primarily focused on decentralized finance and financial markets more broadly.

Tempo offers an interesting alternative to the Solana network. It advertises the ability to pay network fees (called “gas” fees in crypto world) in stablecoins. That is, instead of paying network fees in a native token that can fluctuate in value relative to the dollar, a user can pay network fees in a token that stays in dollar value. It’s a bit more intuitive. It also has certain settlement features focused on “certainty” and speed. That is, it claims to be more predictable. It also has built in metadata designed for bookkeeping. In other words, the Tempo team has set out to build something custom-made for payments, especially for institutions (like banks).

We asked industry insiders whether they expect Tempo to rapidly replace, or kill usage on, major blockchain networks like the Ethereum network or the Solana network. The answers were a resounding no. But they were absolutely, 100% interested in Tempo. And they all said it’s quite interesting.

So why did we write about Tempo today? Well:

“Tempo’s testnet is live!

Any company can now build on a payments-first chain designed for instant settlement, predictable fees, and a stablecoin-native experience.”

Tempo is not live. But its test network is. So developers and companies can play around with its features, see what works, and start developing for the Tempo chain. Something to keep an eye on.

People want exposure to onchain assets in off-chain ways (part n)

From PNC Bank, which is a…bank:

“JUST IN: $410 billion PNC Bank partners with Coinbase to offer direct Bitcoin trading for clients.

The first bank to market such an offering among major US banks.”

Among “major” US banks. As an esteemed reader of the Meridian Update, you know that SoFi claimed that it was the first “national” bank to let its customers trade Bitcoin and a few other onchain assets through its platform. That was back in early November. Who decides what US banks are “major?” It seems PNC Bank’s communications or marketing team does? Odd.

You can read PNC Bank’s full announcement here. But you get the point. There’s another way to buy Bitcoin.

There’s not much more to say on this. So we’ll leave you with a funny thing we noticed. As of today, PNC Bank’s website has an explainer page on cryptocurrency that seems almost wholly dedicated to pointing out how risky it is to buy and hold cryptocurrency. From the explainer:

“The crypto craze is an investment trend that’s grown in popularity the last decade. Many people seem to think it’s a quick way to get rich, but the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found cryptocurrency accounted for the second highest scam losses in 2021.”

“There is a big difference between the cryptocurrency and traditional currency. It’s not insured by a government like U.S. dollars deposited into an FDIC insured bank account. If your cryptocurrency account is ever compromised, the government has no obligation to help get your money back.”

“The” cryptocurrency. Well said. The page continued:

“Like any investment, cryptocurrency can be risky. Some people, including well-known investors, consider it more of a gamble.”

Fun. We are curious how long this page reads this way. We’re guessing that, a couple years ago, PNC Bank was focused on downplaying onchain technologies because, in theory, they present competition to banks. Now, PNC Bank is shifting course to try and collect fees on Bitcoin trading. Makes sense. Times change.

That’s a wrap

Tempo’s test network went live and PNC Bank announced Bitcoin news. We’ll see you tomorrow morning.

Think we missed something today? Send us a note: email@meridianupdate.com.