December 26, 2025 It’s still that awkward post-holiday stretch where liquidity is thin and most people are either away or half-checked-out. Price action across the market has been choppy, but nothing feels especially broken. Kite AI fits right into that mood right now: no hype cycle, no sudden moves, just steady background progress.
$KITE is hovering around $0.09, slightly red on the day, with $30–35M in daily volume across venues like Binance, OrangeX and HTX. Market cap sits near $160M, with FDV still high at roughly $900M (about 1.8B circulating out of 10B total supply). From the October highs near $0.19, the correction has been sharp but it hasn’t felt like panic selling. More like holders settling in and letting the dust clear.
What stands out is the tone on X. There’s no coordinated hype wave, no obvious farming behavior. Most posts are people explaining why verifiable agent identities, programmable permissions, and sub-cent stablecoin payments could matter down the line. Some newcomers are still tossing around generic “future of AI crypto” lines, but overall the discussion feels grounded. The folks who showed up around launch are still here, and they’re talking about the product more than the chart.
Why the Narrative Hasn’t Broken
The biggest anchor is still x402.
Kite is one of the few Layer-1s that didn’t just integrate x402 as a demo or SDK it built native support around Coinbase’s intent-based agent payment standard. That means AI agents can send, receive, and reconcile stablecoin payments autonomously, with sub-second finality and near-zero fees, without humans babysitting every step.
That matters because x402 itself hasn’t slowed down. Since May, weekly transaction counts across the broader x402 ecosystem have climbed into the hundreds of thousands. Tokens and tooling around it are starting to cluster into a real category, not just a whitepaper idea. If agent-to-agent commerce becomes real, Kite is already aligned with the rails people are actually using.
The Brevis partnership from October quietly strengthened that story. zk-based SLA proofs, agent passports, and verifiable execution close a real trust gap: you don’t just assume an agent behaved correctly, you can prove it. That combination identity, authorization, execution, and payment starts to look like actual infrastructure rather than a narrative stack.
Then there’s the Global Builder Tour. It kicked off in Chiang Mai with hands-on dev sessions, not stage shows. Seoul is coming up next, with CEO Chi Zhang speaking alongside a guest session from Perplexity AI. That kind of outreach doesn’t move price short-term, but it’s exactly how early infrastructure ecosystems get seeded.
The Risks Haven’t Changed
None of this removes the obvious pressure points.
Unlocks are still ahead, and supply expansion will likely cap upside until demand grows into it. Real agent activity is still early this whole thesis only works if autonomous agents actually start paying for compute, data, and services at scale. Competition across AI-crypto is intense, and fatigue around the “AI narrative” is real.
If agent adoption stalls, the chain stays quiet. Simple as that.
That said, the backing hasn’t blinked. PayPal Ventures, General Catalyst, and Coinbase Ventures didn’t invest in this for memes or short-term pumps. They understand payments, compliance, and infrastructure timelines. Kite is clearly building for a longer arc than a single cycle.
Where I’m Personally At
My position hasn’t changed. Small allocation from around launch, no chasing dips, no panic selling. This still feels like betting on infrastructure that only gets appreciated once it’s already needed.
For now, Kite is doing the unglamorous work: standards alignment, builder relationships, and boring reliability. In this market, that’s not a bad place to be.
DYOR. Size responsibly. Keep watching the actual usage metrics.
If x402 adoption keeps compounding and agents start doing real work at scale, 2026 could look very different.
Quiet progress beats loud promises.
