# Alt Season Loading… ⏳

> Peek inside this week's Web3 Watch to see why the gap might be tighter than you think.

**Published by:** [The Web3 Watch by Central DAO](https://paragraph.com/@centraldao/)
**Published on:** 2025-09-05
**URL:** https://paragraph.com/@centraldao/alt-season-loading-%E2%8F%B3

## Content

This is how close ALT season is: TL;DR – Web3 in a Minute:Stripe & Paradigm launch Tempo L1 for stablecoin payments Ethereum touches $4.9K ATH, flippening chatter back on Kazakhstan pilots Mastercard-backed crypto cards Fireblocks unveils a global stablecoin network 833K ETH waiting in validator queue, staking demand still high BitMine adds $358M ETH, boosting treasury to $8.7B 1. Stripe & Paradigm Drop a New L1: Tempo tempo.xyzBig one here – Stripe and Paradigm teamed up with OpenAI, Visa, and Shopify to launch Tempo, a payments-focused Layer-1 blockchain. Think 100K+ TPS, low fees, privacy, and you can even pay gas in stablecoins. It’s in private testnet right now, targeting e-commerce, payroll, and remittances. With Stripe’s $1.1B Bridge buy, Tempo is gunning straight at Circle and Google’s Universal Ledger. Stablecoin wars are heating up. 2. ETH Smashes $4.9K ATH Ethereum just touched $4,945, sparking the classic Flippening debate with Bitcoin. Backed by $6.7B ETF inflows, corporate treasuries stacking ETH, and macro hype from Fed cuts – ETH is outpacing BTC this year (45% vs 25%). Traders are eyeing $5K+ but beware: whales profit-taking + ETF reversals could bring turbulence.3. Kazakhstan Rolls Out Mastercard Crypto Cards Kazakhstan is quietly becoming a Web3 dark horse. Their central bank, Mastercard, and local exchange Intebix just launched crypto cards that let you spend USDT and stablecoins, auto-converted into tenge at checkout. 1% fees, $1K daily limit, works on Mastercard & Apple Pay terminals. Regulators are calling it the “bridge” between fiat and crypto. 4. Fireblocks Builds a Global Stablecoin Network Custody giant Fireblocks isn’t playing small – they just launched a stablecoin payments network connecting 40+ partners (Circle, Zerohash, Yellow Card, and Stripe’s Bridge). It links local rails + blockchains + liquidity providers across 60+ currencies. In July alone, Fireblocks moved $212B in stablecoin volume. With Circle’s Arc blockchain integrating soon, expect stablecoin payments to scale fast. 5. 833K ETH Queued for Staking Ethereum Validator queue numbers. Source: ValidatorqueueDespite ETH just hitting ATH, demand to stake is still pumping. Right now, 833,141 ETH (~$3.6B) is waiting in the validator queue. Wait times dropped to 14 days – lowest since August. Analysts say exits are mostly profit-taking and liquid staking rotations into stETH/rETH/EigenLayer. ETH trades around $4,420, consolidating strong. The queue shows one thing: institutions aren’t done staking yet.6. BitMine Goes All-In on ETH BitMine, run by Tom Lee, just dropped $358M on ETH (80K coins), adding to last week’s $668M buy. Total stash = 1.95M ETH (~$8.7B) 🤯 – making them the biggest institutional ETH whale. This triggered a +2% ETH pump and extended a 21% monthly rally. With 35.6M ETH staked (30% supply), SEC’s nod on liquid staking, and big wallets stacking, ETH feels a lot like BTC in 2017. Long-term bulls are eating. MEME OF THE WEEK Alright, that’s a wrap for this week's edition of The Web3 Watch! See you all next week!Join Central DAO

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