Kite.ai

Kite.ai (formerly Zettablock) is building the foundational infrastructure for the "agentic web" — a Layer 1 blockchain purpose-built for AI agents to autonomously transact with identity, payment, governance, and verification capabilities.

Overview

Attribute	Value
Total Funding	$33 million
Layer	Layer 1 blockchain for AI agents
Base Chain	Avalanche (subnet)
Core Protocol	x402 (Agent Payment Protocol)
Mainnet Status	Pre-mainnet (testnet live)
Token	KITE (listed on Coinbase Nov 2025)

Funding History

Round	Date	Amount	Lead Investors
Seed	Feb 2025	$15M	-
Series A	Sep 2025	$18M	PayPal Ventures, General Catalyst
Strategic	Oct 2025	-	Coinbase Ventures

Other Investors: 8VC, Samsung Next, SBI US Gateway Fund, Vertex Ventures, Hashed, HashKey Capital, Avalanche Foundation, LayerZero, Animoca Brands

Key Products

Kite AIR (Agent Identity Resolution)

Launched Sep 2025 — system enabling autonomous agents to authenticate, transact, and operate independently.

• Agent Passport: Verifiable identity for agents
• Agent App Store: Service marketplace for agents
• Live Integrations: Shopify and PayPal (pilot phase)

Six-Pillar Architecture (Mainnet Roadmap)

1. Agent Trust: KitePass Identity Anchor + Programmable Governance
2. Agent Settlement: Stablecoin Native + Facilitator Component
3. Agent Developer Infrastructure: Zero Fee RPC + Documentation + Observability
4. Agent Network Operation: External Validators + VaaS + Progressive Decentralization
5. AgenticFi: DEX + LSD + Cross-chain Bridging + Fiat On/Off-Ramps
6. Agent Ecosystem Growth Engine: Incentive System + Ecosystem Events

Technical Stack

Component	Technology
Consensus	Proof of AI (PoAI)
VM	KiteVM (EVM-compatible extensions)
Primary Language	Go
Python SDK	gokite (PyPI v0.0.15)
Public Repos	28 (github.com/gokite-ai)

Key Partnerships

• Google: AP2 (Agent Payment Protocol) community partnership (Feb 2026)
• Encode Club: Global hackathon (March 2026)
• Coinbase: x402 protocol advancement

Team

Role	Name	Background
CEO	Chi Zhang	PhD AI UC Berkeley, ex-Databricks
CTO	Scott Shi	Ex-Uber real-time AI, Salesforce Einstein AI founding engineer

Team alumni from: Uber, Databricks, Salesforce, NEAR Academic roots: UC Berkeley, MIT, Harvard, Oxford, University of Tokyo IP: 30+ patents and publications (NeurIPS, ICML)

Market Position

Thesis: Kite.ai positions itself as the "payment rail for the AI era" — enabling agents to pay each other autonomously using the x402 protocol (HTTP 402 "Payment Required" standard).

Competitive Landscape:

• Fetch.ai / ASI Alliance
• Bittensor
• Other AI agent blockchains

Differentiation: Native payment infrastructure vs. general-purpose AI chains.

Risks & Gaps

1. Limited public code: Core protocol in private repos
2. Mainnet not live: 1-2 year phased rollout
3. Token supply: 82% not yet in circulation
4. Integration maturity: Shopify/PayPal in pilot only
5. Open standard risk: x402 is open — other chains can implement

Sources

• gokite.ai
• docs.gokite.ai
• github.com/gokite-ai