• 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 🏦

Big 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. 🔥

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.

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. 🌉

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. 💸

Despite 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.

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. 🐂

Alright, that’s a wrap for this week's edition of The Web3 Watch! 🚀
See you all next week!