SAN FRANCISCO, April 30, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Kite today announced the launch of its mainnet and the Kite Agent Passport, an identity and payment infrastructure built specifically for autonomous AI agents.
The launch marks Kite’s transition from testnet to production, introducing a payments and settlement layer purpose-built for agent-driven transactions. The infrastructure combines three layers into a single platform: a stable native settlement layer (Kite Chain), a core agent service (Kite Agent Passport), and the Agent Interface & Experience.
The Kite Agent Passport gives AI agents a programmable, secure wallet to hold funds and make purchases on behalf of users—while users retain full control over spending limits and authorized destinations. For example, users can purchase physical goods, have them shipped home, and let their agent handle payments, all within Claude, with spending limits enforced by the Passport. Kite Chain serves as a stable native settlement layer, processing payments in digital dollars and connecting to traditional banking systems for everyday consumers. The Agent Interface & Experience enables agents and developers to interact with the system through agent registration, agent harnesses, and service discovery.
“The launch is just the beginning,” said Chi Zhang, Co-Founder and CEO of Kite. “Our mission is to create the trusted backbone for agent-driven economies—where every autonomous agent operates with verified identity, programmable permissions, and seamless settlement. This is the infrastructure that will finally let agents do everything for you. We’re thrilled to be building it.”
Now integrated with over 90 service providers, the platform enables users to explore a wide range of agentic payment use cases—from shopping and travel planning to DIY automated agentic workflows using paid agentic services.
Kite is also positioning itself as a unified hub for major payment protocol standards, including the x402 payment standard, Google’s AP2 protocol, Stripe’s Machine Payment Protocol (MPP), and Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP). The company is also a member of the Linux Foundation’s Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF).
Kite has raised $35 million in funding led by PayPal Ventures and General Catalyst. Pilot integrations with PayPal and Shopify are underway, extending Kite’s payment infrastructure into real-world commerce.
The Kite Agent Passport is available now. Interested parties can try it today https://agentpassport.ai/or read how to get started https://agentpassport.ai/quickstart/
About Kite
Kite is building the payment infrastructure for the agent-native web — a foundational layer where autonomous AI agents can operate with verifiable identity, programmable governance, and native stablecoin settlement
Users can learn more about Kite: https://gokite.ai/
Contact
Head of Marketing
Yijing Shi
Kite AI
[email protected]
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/a4dba894-f964-4b97-8624-6dd77202ab36
