Crypto's 'barbell': speculation and stablecoin payments drive adoption, Tempo's Romero says

Miami Beach, FL — After years of experimentation, crypto today is boiling down to two core uses: trading and payments.

Speaking at a fireside chat at Consensus 2026 in Miami, Tempo’s go-to-market lead, Dan Romero, said the industry is settling into a “barbell” shape, with speculative trading like Hyperliquid’s marketplace on one end and stablecoin-based payments gaining traction on the other.

“The things that have worked over the last five years are speculation and stablecoins,” he said. “In the middle, it’s a bit of a wasteland,” he added, describing a slew of projects that have struggled to find product-market fit despite years of development and funding.

Romero is speaking from experience. Before joining Tempo, he was the co-founder of crypto social app Farcaster, which struggled to gain traction despite hefty venture capital checks and years of hype.

Tempo, a payments-focused blockchain backed by Stripe and Paradigm, is positioning itself firmly on the payments side of that divide. Built as a purpose-specific layer-1 blockchain, the network focuses on enterprise needs like compliance and transaction control — features often missing from public blockchains.

For example, companies can block interactions with certain wallet addresses, a function aimed at reducing regulatory risk, Romero said.

That design reflects a broader shift in how large firms approach crypto. Rather than experimenting with tokens, many are adopting stablecoins as backend infrastructure. “It’s plumbing,” the executive said. “But enterprises like plumbing if it’s better, faster, cheaper.”

Stablecoins are already gaining ground in areas like remittances. One example cited was cross-border payments between the U.S. and Mexico, where crypto rails now account for a growing share of flows.

The next wave could come from internet-native businesses. Startups, especially those built around AI agents, are likely to default to stablecoins as the easiest way to move money globally, he said — much like Stripe simplified online payments more than a decade ago.