Source: Cointelegraph
Original: “Circle Co-founder Launches 'AI Native' Bank, Raises $18 Million”
Circle co-founder and Catena Labs CEO Sean Neville has launched a project aimed at developing a financial institution that natively utilizes artificial intelligence.
On May 20, Catena Labs—a company dedicated to building an “AI native financial institution”—announced it successfully raised $18 million in a funding round led by a16z Crypto (the crypto and Web3 venture capital arm of a16z).
Under Sean's leadership, the company aims to realize its vision of creating a fully regulated financial institution for the AI economy. The company stated that this institution will be built for AI agents and human collaborators, operated by AI workers under human supervision, and will adopt risk management and compliance approaches tailored for AI.
Cointelegraph reached out to Catena Labs for more information about the project but did not receive an immediate response.
In the announcement, Catena Labs noted that the traditional financial system has shown resistance to AI technology. The company stated that these systems are unprepared for AI and are hindering the growth of the agent economy.
Sean stated at the press conference that AI agents will soon dominate most economic transactions, but he added that the financial system is not yet ready.
The company claims that AI agents are becoming “powerful economic participants,” while the global financial infrastructure is unable to keep pace. Catena described this infrastructure as “slow, expensive, fraught with global friction, lacking flexibility, and unadapted to the new opportunities and risks of AI.”
The company stated that this prompted them to create an AI native financial institution to address the challenges present in the current traditional financial system.
Sean said, “That’s why we are building an AI native financial institution that will empower AI agents and the businesses and consumers they serve to transact securely and efficiently.”
Additionally, the team shared an Agent Commerce Kit (ACK), which is a collection of open-source patterns, components, and emerging protocols for verifiable agent identities. The company stated that they will use ACK as an early building block.
In the announcement, Catena Labs stated that AI agents can utilize traditional systems and financial channels. However, the company pointed out that when AI agents are paired with stablecoins, they gain superpowers, with the company describing stablecoins as “AI native currency.”
The company mentioned that regulated stablecoins like USDC enable near-instant, low-cost global transactions, which are crucial for AI agents.
Catena Labs wrote, “With AI native currency, agents can unlock new business models, bringing greater prosperity to humans and businesses.”
Related: Avalanche-backed Fusion launches with $100 million to promote blockchain adoption
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