Crypto exchange Kraken said on Thursday that payments blockchain Tempo selected it as its first US centralized exchange partner, giving payments firms and stablecoin issuers access to Kraken’s full institutional stack.
The partnership extends an earlier integration, reported on June 1, when Kraken became the first US exchange to natively support USDT0 deposits and withdrawals on Tempo. USDC.e is also now live.
Under the expanded deal, teams building on Tempo get access to spot and OTC liquidity, fiat on/off-ramps, qualified custody through Kraken Financial (a Wyoming SPDI), compliance tooling including KYB and sanctions screening, distribution to Kraken’s verified user base, and first-look access to Kraken’s listings team for tokens launching on the chain.
Kraken framed the arrangement as consolidation: “one relationship rather than five vendor conversations,” covering custody, listings, OTC, on/off-ramps, and ecosystem distribution.
The target audience is payments companies, neobanks, stablecoin issuers, and token launches building on Tempo, a Layer 1 blockchain for stablecoin payments incubated by Stripe and Paradigm.
Tempo has been assembling institutional partnerships since earlier this year. Visa launched a validator node on the chain in April and added Tempo to its stablecoin settlement pilot.
