December 14, 2025 Bitcoin has been sitting quietly above $91,000, and that calm has given smaller AI–crypto projects a rare chance to show real progress. Kite AI ($KITE) is one of them. The token trades near $0.082, up about 3.8% over the past 24 hours, trimming what had been a rough week. Its market cap is around $147.6 million, with $45.2 million in daily volume enough to hold the 187 spot on CoinMarketCap.
Kite’s work isn’t the usual marketing fluff. The network just pushed x402 V2 live, bringing multi-step intent support for faster, cheaper payments. The new MCP Protocol lets agents connect directly to online services without using passwords, and the Kite Global Tour began on December 16, starting with events in Chiang Mai and Seoul. Together, these moves show a team that’s quietly building utility while sentiment in crypto is still stuck in Extreme Fear (index at 10).
So far, the numbers are serious. The testnet has handled more than 300 million transactions, and Coinbase Ventures recently joined earlier backers PayPal Ventures and General Catalyst. For a project aiming to serve the $30 trillion autonomous AI economy expected by 2030, this looks more like groundwork than hype.
A Layer-1 for Autonomous Agents
Kite AI is trying to become the default EVM-compatible Layer-1 where AI agents can move, trade, and interact without losing human oversight. Its Kite Passport system, which has already issued 17.8 million programmable identities, keeps users, agents, and sessions distinct. The idea is to make sure an agent can act independently but never outside the permissions its owner sets.
Under the hood, the chain runs on Proof of Artificial Intelligence (PoAI) a consensus that rewards verified human contributions like data training and labeling. The x402 V2 protocol now processes HTTP 402 micropayments at roughly 90% lower cost, aligned with Google’s AP2 and Ethereum’s ERC-8004 standards. The MCP Protocol builds on this by letting agents log in to third-party services securely, without any password involved.
Testnet metrics show 50 million wallets, around 7.8 million active, and roughly 30 million daily agent calls. There are even e-commerce pilots that let agents pay PayPal and Shopify directly through the Agent App Store small but visible steps toward real adoption.
Total funding stands at about $33 million, from PayPal Ventures and General Catalyst in September’s Series A, followed by Coinbase Ventures in October. As one post on X put it: “Kite AI is building the L1 where autonomous agents gain identity, trust, and real-time payment rails.”
Token Use and Structure
The $KITE token runs everything payments, staking, and DAO voting. The total supply caps at 10 billion, with around 1.8 billion in circulation so far (18% unlocked). About 48% is set aside for community rewards, 12% for investors, and 20% for the team, vesting through 2027. Right now, stakers can earn about 12 to 15 percent a year, though those rewards are expected to cool off as the network grows and emissions taper.
When KITE launched on Binance’s Seed Label on November 3, it hit a $159 million market cap, an $883 million FDV, and $263 million in first-day volume. Its portable memory and reputation features let agents carry verified trust between contexts a building block for identity-based transactions.
December Progress: Real Events, Real Builders
The Global Tour kicked off on December 16, starting in Chiang Mai with a developer meetup co-hosted by OpenBuild and ETH Chiang Mai, followed by a community session in Seoul at Perplexity’s Cafe Curious, where co-founder Chi Zhang gave the keynote. These are builder-focused gatherings, not marketing shows.
On the technical side, x402 V2 removed multi-step payment delays, reaching near web-native speeds, while MCP simplified how agents talk to web apps and APIs. Developers are now adding features like autonomous trading and instant settlements, which pushed network throughput to about 932,000 weekly transactions, up more than 10,000% since May.
Recent integrations also help: OKX Wallet added Kite support on November 19, and Pieverse introduced multi-protocol payment flows a week earlier. The Agent Passport’s zero-knowledge proofs allow verified agents to move between ecosystems without new KYC checks, while the Orchestration API automates multi-intent workflows. One community post described it best: “Imagine your AI Agent making a cross-chain trade every secondthat’s GoKiteAI right now.”
Market Picture: Fearful, but Functioning
At $0.082, KITE trades inside a $0.079–$0.085 range.Roughly $45 million in daily volume mostly on HTX keeps the market active. The RSI around 45 signals balance, while a Fear & Greed score of 10 underlines the lingering caution. Roughly 40% of the last month’s days have closed green, and short-term forecasts suggest a cautious +8.7% move through January. Analysts are keeping an eye on $0.078 as near-term support and $0.09 as the breakout level if momentum continues.
Risks and What to Watch
There’s still a clear gap between Kite’s numbers $147 million in market cap versus about $800 million FDV and that’s where dilution risk sits. More than 80% of the tokens won’t unlock until 2027, and since there’s no built-in burn model, activity has to stay high to balance supply. Add to that the growing talk about AI agent liability and pressure from Fetch.ai, and it’s clear the project is navigating a pretty tight lane.
Still, there’s upside. The Global Tour is growing Kite’s builder base; Pieverse’s Q1 expansion should bring more cross-chain flow; and new pilot programs planned for Q4 could triple agent call volumes. If trading volume keeps topping $45 million, a short move past $0.09 seems realistic.
Closing View: The Human Layer in Machine Autonomy
At roughly $0.082, KITE sits at an interesting point strong execution, weak sentiment. The updates this quarter x402 V2, MCP Protocol, and the early Global Tour are quietly proving that “agentic” systems can operate beyond concept papers.
For short-term traders, the $0.078–$0.09 band defines opportunity. For long-term holders, 12–15% staking yields and expanding transaction counts argue for patience. As Chi Zhang reminded the Seoul crowd, “Agents operate independently, but always under your constraints.”
It’s a fitting summary of Kite’s place in the market: automation built on accountability. The project isn’t trying to replace human control it’s giving it programmable form.
