Kite AI has been busy this month. While Bitcoin drifts around $91,000 and ETF talk keeps headlines noisy, the team behind KITE has been pushing code instead of campaigns. The token trades near $0.0836, up 5.3 percent in 24 hours, leaving its market cap at about $150 million on $47 million daily volume. That’s a long way from its November 3 debut high of $0.1387, but activity on-chain suggests the project is finding rhythm after launch volatility.
The quiet release of the x402 V2 protocol in early December is the main reason. It’s a heavy upgrade one that trims multi-step payment delays across Kite’s agent network. Internal dashboards show more than 932 thousand transactions each week, and the number keeps climbing. Alongside it came the MCP Protocol, a system that lets AI agents and digital services handshake automatically, skipping the password and verification loops that slow automation today.
The Layer-1 Under the Surface
Kite has never really played the hype game. The network was built to become an EVM-compatible Layer-1 where software agents can move stablecoins, verify identity, and coordinate tasks without supervision. Its Kite Passport gives every agent a programmable reputation and permission set; there are already 17.8 million passports issued. The companion Proof of Artificial Intelligence (PoAI) layer rewards developers who contribute SDKs and templates for agent behavior.
The x402 standard itself traces back to HTTP 402 an unused “Payment Required” code reworked here for trustless M2M micropayments. It lines up with Google’s AP2 and Ethereum’s ERC-8004 ideas, cuts transaction fees about 90 percent, and drops JWT data embeds entirely.
On testnet, the ecosystem has logged 50 million wallets, 7.8 million actives, and over 300 million transactions, with roughly 30 million agent calls each day. E-commerce pilots show agents autonomously buying through PayPal or Shopify plug-ins from the Agent App Store, and account abstraction has made billing integrations almost plug-and-play.
Backing and Token Structure
The project has $33 million in funding, including $18 million Series A from PayPal Ventures and General Catalyst in September, plus a Coinbase Ventures top-up in October. The KITE token remains the fuel agents pay fees through x402, validators stake for security at roughly 12–15 percent APY, and holders steer upgrades through on-chain governance. Supply is 10 billion KITE, 1.8 billion circulating (18 percent unlocked). Distribution sits around 48 percent community, 12 percent investors, 20 percent team, vesting through 2027.
December’s Real Work
Version 2 of x402 handles multi-step intents recurring or conditional payments with less waiting time. The MCP Protocol completes the loop, letting verified agents link to services instantly. Together, they make Kite’s payment rails feel closer to real-time internet behavior. Developers have already folded the pair into autonomous trading and settlement dApps. Weekly activity above 932 k transactions marks a 10 000 percent climb since May.
Integrations continue to widen: OKX Wallet (Nov 19) advanced AI payment trials; Pieverse (Nov 12) opened multi-protocol flows; Coinbase Early Access (Nov 10) and Binance airdrop campaigns brought in new users. Q4 pilots reportedly tripled agent calls toward multi-trillion projections for the sector.
Market and Momentum
The market tone stays wary Fear & Greed Index 10 (Extreme Fear) and a 42 RSI reflect that but KITE’s $0.079–$0.085 trading range on solid volume shows buyers aren’t gone. Analysts point to $0.078 as support and $0.09 as the near-term ceiling. Long-range models still point to around $0.17 by late 2026 if agent adoption scales.
Yes, the token faces dilution risk: only 18 percent unlocked and an $800 million FDV leave pressure through 2027. There’s no burn policy yet. But with its funding base and a technical moat around x402 V2 and MCP, the network looks positioned for patient growth rather than hype spikes.
Closing View
Founder Chi Zhang keeps the message consistent: “Agents, identity, and payments will power the next phase of the AI economy.” If that economy really approaches the $30 trillion mark analysts throw around for 2030, infrastructure like Kite’s will need to exist first.
For now, KITE trades like a project still finding its floor, but the technology underneath is getting sharper. The December upgrades didn’t make noise they made progress. In a cycle obsessed with momentum, that kind of discipline is starting to stand out.
