Flutterwave has struck a new blockchain partnership, this time with Tempo, a payments-focused Layer 1 network, as the African payments giant accelerates its strategy to build out a stablecoin-powered settlement infrastructure across the continent.
The deal was announced on June 4, 2026, at the Money20/20 Europe conference in Amsterdam, and follows a string of stablecoin-related moves Flutterwave has made over the past six months.
A Second Blockchain Rail
Under the agreement, Tempo will be integrated as a settlement layer for stablecoin transactions within two of Flutterwave’s core products: Send App, which serves remittance users across the US, UK, EU, and Canada, sending money to recipients in Africa, and Flutterwave for Business (F4B), the company’s enterprise cross-border payments platform.
Critically, Tempo is not replacing Flutterwave’s existing Polygon integration. The two blockchains will operate alongside each other, with each handling different payment routes based on cost, speed, and the availability of funds on a given corridor. The multi-rail approach gives Flutterwave more flexibility in optimising transactions depending on geography and payment type.
Tempo, which was unveiled by Stripe and Paradigm in September 2025 and went live in March 2026, is a payments-first Layer 1 blockchain designed specifically for stablecoin transactions, including payments, remittances, subscriptions, and supplier settlements, rather than decentralised finance or trading activity. Stripe noted in its 2025 annual letter that the blockchain enables payments to settle in under a second while remaining compatible with compliance, accounting, and reconciliation systems.
Building on the Turnkey Foundation
The Tempo deal builds on infrastructure Flutterwave has been quietly assembling since the start of 2026. In January, Flutterwave partnered with Turnkey and Nuvion to introduce stablecoin balances for merchants across its platform, enabling customers to hold and transact in USDC and USDT alongside existing fiat balances directly within embedded wallets on Flutterwave products. In that arrangement, Turnkey provided the embedded wallet infrastructure and verifiable blockchain security, while Nuvion offered an AI-powered banking platform bridging fiat and stablecoin systems.
April saw Flutterwave team up with Kulipa to offer stablecoin payment cards, and the company has also published internal plans to build what it describes as Africa’s largest stablecoin infrastructure. The Tempo announcement represents the most recent addition to what is clearly a deliberate, layered build-out.
Enterprise First, Then Consumers
The deal is structured as a multi-year agreement, starting with large enterprise clients, with consumer remittances on the Send App set to follow later in 2026. Flutterwave currently processes transactions across 34 African countries, giving Tempo a significant network through which to demonstrate its capabilities at scale.
