Circle co-founder to create ‘AI-native’ bank after $18M raise

Circle co-founder and Catena Labs CEO Sean Neville has launched a project that aims to develop a financial institution that natively leverages artificial intelligence. 

On May 20, Catena Labs, the company building an “AI-native financial institution,” announced that it secured $18 million in a funding round led by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) Crypto, a16z’s crypto and Web3 venture capital arm. 

Led by Neville, the company aims to realize its vision of a fully regulated financial institution for the AI economy. The company said it will be built for AI agents and human collaborators and will be operated by AI workers with human oversight and AI-specific risk management and compliance approaches. 

Cointelegraph contacted Catena Labs to get more information about the project but received no response before publication. 

Traditional financial systems are “resistant” to AI

In the announcement, Catena Labs argued that conventional financial systems resist AI technology. The company said these systems are unprepared for AI and are hindering the growth of the agent economy. 

Neville said in a news release that AI agents will soon conduct most economic transactions, but noted that financial systems are unprepared.

The company said AI agents are becoming “powerful economic participants,” and the world’s financial infrastructure can’t keep up. Catana described the infrastructure as “slow, expensive, full of global friction, inflexible and ill-suited to the new opportunities and risks of AI.”

The company said this prompted them to create an AI-native financial institution to address the challenges of traditional financial systems. 

“That’s why we’re building an AI-native financial institution that will give AI agents, and the businesses and consumers they serve, the ability to transact safely and efficiently,” Neville said. 

In addition to the announcement, the team also shared an Agent Commerce Kit (ACK), an open-source set of patterns, components and emerging protocols for verifiable agent identity. The company said they are using an ACK as an early building block. 

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AI agents to use “AI-native” money like stablecoins

In the announcement, Catena Labs said AI agents can use traditional systems and financial rails. However, the company said the agents gain superpowers when paired with stablecoins, which the company described as “AI-native money.”

The company mentioned that regulated stablecoins like USDC (USDC) enable near-instant, low-cost, global transactions, which are essential for AI agents.

“Using AI-native money, agents can unlock new business models and greater prosperity for humans and businesses,” Catena Labs wrote. 

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