Catena Labs, founded by Sean Nevilleâco-founder of Circle Internet Group and inventor of the USDC stablecoinâhas emerged from stealth with an $18 million financing round led by Andreessen Horowitzâs crypto arm, a16z Crypto. The company plans to develop the first fully regulated, AI-native financial institution designed for agent-driven commerce. Investors include Breyer Capital, Circle Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, CoinFund, Pillar VC, Stanford Engineering Venture Fund, and notable angels such as Balaji Srinivasan and Tom Brady.
Neville stated that âAI agents will soon conduct most economic transactions,â but current financial infrastructure remains âslow, expensive, full of global friction, inflexible, and ill-suitedâ for automated entities. Catena Labs aims to overcome these limitations by building a platform that natively integrates regulated stablecoins like USDC for near-instant, low-cost global transfers, enabling AI agents to execute payments and services without human friction.
Key to Catenaâs architecture is the Agent Commerce Kit (ACK), an open-source framework providing patterns, components, and protocols for verifiable agent identity, authorization, and auditability. The ACK is designed to ensure trust and compliance in automated interactions, supporting onboarding, KYC/AML adherence, and transaction monitoring tailored to AI workflows.
The AI-native bank will feature modular architecture, combining programmable payment rails with custom risk engines that employ machine-learning models to assess automated counterparties in real time. Compliance approaches will integrate AI-specific safeguards, including anomaly detection, smart contract verification, and decentralized identity proofs. Human oversight mechanisms will govern critical operations, maintaining regulatory transparency while enabling autonomous agent execution.
Catena Labs envisions an âagent economyâ where software entities perform financial tasksâfrom treasury management to micro-transactions and subscription settlementsâunderpinned by embedded smart contracts and tokenized settlements. By leveraging regulated stablecoins, the platform plans to offer programmable money that aligns with traditional finance standards yet unlocks new business models for AI-driven commerce.
The $18 million capital infusion will accelerate product development, talent acquisition, and regulatory licensing. Catena Labs aims to secure necessary banking charters and collaborate with financial authorities to define compliance frameworks for AI agents. The company projects an initial beta launch with selected AI partners in early 2026, followed by broader availability to enterprises seeking agent-centric financial infrastructure.
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