Coin columns · Ethereum City (Capital)
Kite (KITE): A Layer 1 for AI Agent Identity and Payments
An AI-agent payments chain built around the Agent Passport
KITE is the token of Kite, a layer-1 blockchain built so AI agents (programs that act for a user) can prove who they are and pay in stablecoins. The token first appeared on 3 November 2025, and Kite says its mainnet (the live network) opened on 30 April 2026.
1. An AI payments chain formerly called Zettablock
Kite (Kite AI) is built by a San Francisco-based team, previously called Zettablock; its co-founders are CEO Chi Zhang and CTO Scott Shi. PayPal Ventures and General Catalyst led a Series A (early funding round) in September 2025, and Coinbase Ventures is also named an investor.
KITE has a maximum supply of 10 billion; it is described as Kite Chain’s base token, also issued on chains including Ethereum. On the Crypto Nation map, KITE stands in Ethereum City (the capital), because it was first issued on Ethereum.
2. Identity and spending limits built into payments
Kite targets one question: is it safe for an AI to spend money for a person? Kite Chain is an EVM-compatible layer 1 (a main blockchain compatible with Ethereum’s virtual machine), and Kite promotes a three-level identity of user, agent and session (a temporary key for one task). Its Agent Passport is a programmable wallet that lets an agent hold funds and buy on a user’s behalf, with user-set spending limits and allowed destinations enforced by the Passport.
Payments are described as settling in dollar stablecoins, using state channels (a way to batch small payments instead of recording each one on-chain). Kite says it aims to be a hub linking agent-payment standards: x402, Google’s AP2, Stripe’s MPP and Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP).
3. Token uses and key dates
KITE is described as paying network fees (gas) on Kite Chain, being staked (locked to back validators) and carrying governance votes. Its uses were designed to open in phases, and sources differ on the roles of KITE and stablecoins in fees and payments, so check the official documents.
Key dates: the Series A in September 2025, the token generation event (when tokens were first created and distributed) on 3 November 2025 with listings on several exchanges, and the mainnet and Agent Passport launch on 30 April 2026. Kite says pilot integrations with PayPal and Shopify are underway, a claim resting on its own announcement.
4. Things to know
The mainnet opened only in April 2026, and one analysis called Kite unproven at scale. Many integrations are described as pilots, so how often and how much agents actually pay needs separate checking. Because spending limits and key handling are the safeguards when an agent spends for a person, a setup error or hack could mean direct losses.
Other blockchains and payment services compete, and it is open whether a dedicated layer 1 is needed or general-purpose chains will absorb these features. Rules for agent-initiated transactions are unsettled. Only part of the 10 billion supply circulates, so release schedules are worth checking, as is the gap between described and implemented token functions.
Written from information public up to October 2026. It does not recommend or rate any coin and is not investment advice. If something is wrong, please tell us through the contact page.