Kite is a new type of blockchain designed specifically to support what many experts are calling the agentic economy. In this future digital environment, autonomous artificial intelligence agents act on behalf of humans and organizations, making decisions, transacting value, and coordinating complex workflows without direct human intervention. Kite’s founders believe that existing blockchain platforms and traditional payment systems are not designed to handle the speed, scale, security, and governance needs of these autonomous agents. Kite aims to change that by creating a foundational network where AI agents can operate securely, transact with one another, prove identity, and be governed according to programmable rules that reflect human intent and policy.
Kite’s vision grew out of the idea that as AI becomes more capable and more autonomous, agents need mechanisms to handle real value transfer, identity verification, accountability, and permissions enforcement. Today most AI systems can read, analyze, and generate content or perform automated tasks, but they still rely on centralized platforms to interact with the wider economy or process payments. Kite’s goal is to provide a decentralized infrastructure layer that allows AI agents to operate as first‑class economic actors without surrendering control to intermediaries.
At the center of Kite’s design is a purpose‑built Layer‑1 blockchain that supports real‑time transactions, programmable governance, and verifiable identity for AI agents. The platform is compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM), which means developers who are familiar with smart contracts and Ethereum tools can build on Kite with minimal friction. Compatibility also helps Kite fit into the broader Web3 ecosystem while enabling innovations specific to agentic commerce.
Kite’s blockchain is also optimized for low‑cost, high‑frequency micropayments. Ordinary payment systems, including Visa or Mastercard, were designed for human users making occasional purchases. They settle transactions in seconds and charge fees measured in tens of cents per transaction. Autonomous agents, by contrast, may need to make thousands of micro‑payments per second, settle in milliseconds, and operate with near‑zero fees. Kite’s architecture supports these needs by treating micropayments as a native behavior and integrating stablecoins such as USDC as the default medium for transaction settlement. Agents can open lightweight payment channels and interact with one another without incurring high overhead, enabling true machine‑native value transfer.
A major innovation in Kite’s technology is its three‑tier identity framework. This framework separates identity responsibilities into three distinct categories: user, agent, and session. The user is the human principal who owns and controls the AI agents and holds ultimate authority. Agents are autonomous digital programs with their own cryptographic identities and wallets that can operate with bounded authority derived from the user’s identity. Sessions provide temporary keys and scopes for individual actions or transactions, reducing security risk by limiting how long sensitive credentials are exposed. This layered identity model enhances both security and flexibility by ensuring that AI agents can act independently while remaining accountable to their owners and constrained by defined policies.
Kite also incorporates a unique programmable governance layer. Governance rules are not just advisory; they are enforced at the protocol level. Users can set precise constraints such as spending limits, allowable counterparties, policy‑based triggers, and authorization requirements. These programmable constraints help prevent misuse or undesired behavior by agents, ensuring that autonomous decision‑making remains within human‑defined boundaries. In effect, each agent operates with a combination of identity, reputation, and policy enforcement that mimics, on the blockchain, the kinds of controls humans use in traditional financial systems but with far greater transparency and automation.
Kite also features what it calls the Agent Passport. This is a cryptographically verifiable identity document for each agent. The passport ensures that every interaction, transaction, or service execution can be traced back to a unique, authenticated digital identity. This identity is portable across services and environments, meaning that agents can operate across platforms without repeated re‑authentication. Over time, reputations can be built and verified on‑chain, enabling new kinds of trust mechanisms among autonomous systems.
Another significant area of the platform is the Agent App Store. This is a marketplace where developers can list services, data streams, application programming interfaces (APIs), or business logic that agents can discover and use autonomously. Agents can browse the marketplace, evaluate service terms, negotiate pricing, and pay for services over blockchain rails. Service providers, on the other hand, can earn revenue directly from agent usage without relying on intermediaries. This marketplace infrastructure extends the economic capabilities of agents beyond simple rule execution to a dynamic ecosystem of supply and demand among autonomous systems.
A key part of Kite’s payment infrastructure is its integration with the x402 Agent Payment Standard from Coinbase. This standard defines how agents express payment intent, settle transactions, and reconcile payments in a way that is secure and interoperable across systems. By building native x402 support, Kite positions itself as an execution layer for machine‑to‑machine commerce, enabling agents built on different platforms to transact with one another seamlessly. Stablecoin‑native settlement further reduces volatility and risk, making agentic commerce practical for real‑world use cases.
Kite’s economic model revolves around its native token, KITE. The token has several planned utilities. Initially it is used for ecosystem participation and incentive mechanisms, rewarding users, developers, and early adopters for contributing to the network’s growth. In later phases, KITE is expected to support staking, allowing validators to secure the network and earn rewards, and governance, giving holders a voice in decisions about protocol upgrades and economic parameters. The token is also used to pay for transaction fees and to align economic incentives across participants.
Kite has already attracted notable institutional backing. The platform has raised tens of millions of dollars in funding from strategic investors, including PayPal Ventures, General Catalyst, Coinbase Ventures, Samsung Next, Avalanche Foundation, and others. This level of investment reflects deep interest from established players in the potential for autonomous agent ecosystems.
Since its initial development, Kite has progressed through multiple testnet phases. These testnets have shown significant interaction volumes, with hundreds of millions or even billions of agent interactions recorded as developers and early users engage with the platform. The mainnet launch, offering full public access and economic infrastructure, is targeted for late 2025 or early 2026 depending on final development milestones and security audits.
Kite’s ambition is not limited to theoretical innovation. The platform has pursued real‑world integrations with existing commerce systems such as PayPal and Shopify. These integrations allow autonomous agents to interact with merchants in environments that consumers and businesses already use, settling payments on‑chain with stablecoins instead of traditional payment processors. This integration path helps bridge the gap between decentralized autonomous systems and mainstream economic activity.
The potential applications of Kite’s technology are broad. In an agentic commerce scenario, an AI agent representing a consumer could automatically browse for the best deals across digital platforms, compare pricing and fulfillment options, negotiate terms with service‑oriented agents, and execute purchases within predefined budget limits. In enterprise settings, AI agents could autonomously procure computing resources, manage data access rights, or coordinate micro‑transactions in supply chains. Because identity, payments, and governance are verifiable on‑chain, these activities are transparent, auditable, and subject to policy‑enforced constraints at every step.
Despite its promise, Kite also faces challenges. Autonomous agent markets are still emerging, regulatory frameworks for machine‑led value transfer are nascent or nonexistent in many jurisdictions, and developers must build compelling real‑world use cases beyond theoretical demonstrations. The technology also needs broad adoption by developers and service providers to unlock network effects. The long‑term success of Kite depends on whether autonomous agents become an integral part of digital and economic workflows and whether the platform can maintain secure, efficient, and transparent operations at scale.
In summary, Kite represents one of the most ambitious efforts to date to build infrastructure for a future where artificial intelligence agents act autonomously in economic ecosystems. By combining an EVM‑compatible blockchain with programmable governance, cryptographic identity, native stablecoin payments, and an open marketplace for agent services, Kite aims to create a new foundation for machine‑to‑machine commerce. If successful, it could play a central role in shaping the agentic web and enabling autonomous AI agents to participate fully in global digital economies.
