Exclusive: Circle cofounder raises $18 million to apply AI to payments in new st

Sean Neville, who cofounded the crypto startup Circle in 2013, says his new startup Catena Labs plans to build an "AI-native bank" and has raised $18 million in a seed round led by the crypto arm of Andreessen Horowitz. Other investors include Breyer Capital, Circle Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, and Tom Brady. Neville predicted that in the future only AI agents, not humans or businesses, will execute financial transactions. He said his eight-person team has developed an open-source protocol for AI-powered payments and AI identity, and that Catena's software will integrate stablecoins without being defined by them.