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a16z Leads $18M Seed Round for Catena Labs, Crypto Industry Bets on Stablecoin AI Payment

a16z Leads $18M Seed Round for Catena Labs, Crypto Industry Bets on Stablecoin AI Payment

BlockBeatsBlockBeats2025/05/21 06:48
By:BlockBeats

Traditional finance is still stuck in a "human-to-human" model, while Catena aims to achieve "AI-to-AI" interaction.

On May 20, Circle co-founder Sean Neville announced that his new project, Catena Labs, has successfully completed an $18 million seed round of financing.


This round of financing was led by a16z Crypto, with follow-on investments from Breyer Capital, Coinbase Ventures, and former parent company Circle Ventures, as well as NFL star Tom Brady.


a16z Crypto co-founder and general partner Chris Dixon said: Sean Neville and the Catena team have the expertise to tackle this challenge. They are building financial infrastructure that agents can rely on, and we are excited to support their vision.


a16z Leads $18M Seed Round for Catena Labs, Crypto Industry Bets on Stablecoin AI Payment image 0


AI Opening a Bank?


Catena Labs is a fintech startup that aims to "build an AI-native bank from scratch," focusing on providing tailored financial infrastructure for AI agents, such as smart payments, identity verification, low-cost settlements, etc. The company plans to establish the first fully regulated AI-native financial institution.


The traditional payment rails assume that there is a human at one end of each transaction, resulting in delays such as 3-day ACH transfers and high fees for credit card payments (up to 3%).


All current traditional financial systems are still stuck in the "human-to-human" phase, where the system flags automated activities as fraud, leading to manual review. This slows down the pace of innovation and limits the actual capabilities of AI agents.


Catena wants to enable "AI-to-AI" interactions, allowing your AI assistant to directly help you with account opening, transfers, financial management, and even doing business with other AIs. Software agents should be able to instantly and securely make payments and receive rewards.


It operates in the AI + fintech space, focusing on AI-driven financial services and decentralized identity, a field that is currently being aggressively pursued by big capital.


From USDC to AI Banking: Circle Co-founder Takes Another Swing


a16z Leads $18M Seed Round for Catena Labs, Crypto Industry Bets on Stablecoin AI Payment image 1


Catena Labs was founded by Circle co-founder Sean Neville and was initially established in 2021 with a focus on exploring AI and decentralized identity. In 2023, it formally shifted its focus to building an "AI-native financial system."


Neville was formerly an engineer at Adobe and a co-founder of Circle Internet Group, Inc., leading the design and development of USDC. By April 2025, Circle had submitted an IPO application with a valuation of approximately $5 billion.


In early 2020, Neville stepped down from his operational role at Circle but remained a board member. After leaving Circle, he delved into AI, firmly believing that we are entering an AI-native web era, which also became the foundation of Catena Labs.


In 2021, Neville, along with Matt Venables (Co-founder and CTO of Catena Labs), established a technology lab to explore emerging technologies such as AI and decentralized identity. Catena Labs was born out of this vision.


Currently, Catena Labs has only 9 members, all from world-class teams at Meta, Google, Jump Crypto, and Protocol Labs. Their official website allows direct submission of resumes, indicating an active effort to recruit talent globally.


a16z Leads $18M Seed Round for Catena Labs, Crypto Industry Bets on Stablecoin AI Payment image 2


Currently, Catena Labs has developed an open-source protocol that allows AI to act as a user's "bank representative." The company explicitly states that it is not issuing cryptocurrency or stablecoins at the moment, but investors will receive equity with accompanying token warrants.


Redefining the Financial System with AI


Jim Breyer, Founder and CEO of Breyer Capital, said, "Neville is uniquely qualified to lead the creation of the first AI-native bank. Integrating AI into commerce requires rebuilding the financial infrastructure. Legacy systems do not always keep up, which is why Catena is so intriguing."


Furthermore, Neville predicts that future financial transactions will be entirely executed by AI agents. The project also envisions AI not only engaging in chat and drawing but also actively "earning, spending, and managing money," becoming independent economic participants.


a16z Leads $18M Seed Round for Catena Labs, Crypto Industry Bets on Stablecoin AI Payment image 3


While Catena Labs has not yet launched a coin or product, they have just open-sourced the Agent Commerce Kit (ACK), which is a financial protocol framework designed specifically for AI, with a focus on two key aspects—AI agent identity verification and automatic payments.


What Catena Labs aims to address is the various unfriendliness of traditional finance towards AI—slow payments, high costs, and lack of automation compatibility. ACK represents their first step: using stablecoins for fast settlements, employing standardized protocols for identity verification, and ultimately enabling AI to have its own "bank account" and "financial services" just like a human.


Currently, they have not disclosed specific product plans but have mentioned that in the future, they will open up through APIs and other means to developers and businesses to build an AI-driven financial ecosystem. Although still in development, judging from the direction of the ACK framework, their goal is to rewrite the underlying logic of the entire financial system with AI.


Summary


Catena Labs is a highly promising early-stage project operating in the hot intersection of AI and FinTech. Co-founders Sean Neville and Matt Venables, leveraging their successful experiences at Circle and USDC, lead a lean team of only 9 individuals. They have secured an $18 million seed funding round led by a16z.


a16z Leads $18M Seed Round for Catena Labs, Crypto Industry Bets on Stablecoin AI Payment image 4


Their AI-native vision, open-source protocol (ACK), and flexible integration with stablecoins showcase their industry foresight. Although specific products have not yet been launched, their strong funding background and industry support give them significant competitiveness in the AI-driven financial sector.


In the future, Catena Labs' development will depend on the speed of product deployment and the effectiveness of ecosystem building.


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Disclaimer: The content of this article solely reflects the author's opinion and does not represent the platform in any capacity. This article is not intended to serve as a reference for making investment decisions.

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