[PRESS RELEASE – San Francisco, United States, April 30th, 2026]
Kite today announced the launch of its mainnet and the Kite Agent Passport, a purpose-built identity and payment infrastructure for autonomous AI agents.
This mainnet launch marks Kite’s move from testnet to production and introduces a payments and settlement layer specifically designed for agent-driven transactions. The platform integrates three core components into a unified system: a stable native settlement layer called Kite Chain, a central agent service named Kite Agent Passport, and the Agent Interface & Experience for developers and agents.
The Kite Agent Passport provides AI agents with a programmable, secure wallet to hold funds and execute payments on behalf of users, while users retain full control over spending limits and authorized recipients. For example, a user can authorize an agent to purchase physical goods, arrange shipping to their home, and let the agent handle payment within an environment like Claude, with spending constraints enforced by the Passport. Kite Chain functions as a stable native settlement layer, processing payments in digital dollars and bridging to traditional banking systems for everyday consumers. The Agent Interface & Experience allows agents and developers to connect to the platform through agent registration, agent harnesses, and service discovery tools.
“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.”
With integrations spanning more than 90 service providers, the platform supports a broad range of agentic payment scenarios, from shopping and travel planning to automated workflows that use paid agentic services. These integrations enable agents to act on user instructions across commerce, logistics, and service marketplaces while keeping user controls in place.
Kite is positioning itself as a unified hub for major payment protocol standards, supporting the x402 payment standard, Google’s AP2 protocol, Stripe’s Machine Payment Protocol (MPP), and Anthropic’s Model Context Protocol (MCP). Kite is also a member of the Linux Foundation’s Agentic AI Foundation (AAIF), contributing to ecosystem standards and interoperability.
The company 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 and merchant experiences.
The Kite Agent Passport is available now. Interested parties can try it today at https://agentpassport.ai/ or follow the quick start guide at https://agentpassport.ai/quickstart/
About Kite
Kite is building 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. Kite’s goal is to enable secure, auditable agent payments while preserving user control over permissions and spending.
Users can learn more about Kite at https://gokite.ai/