What is Kite AI (KITE)

I. Project Introduction

1. What Is Kite?

Kite is a next-generation high-performance Layer-1 network designed specifically for AI Agents, enabling them to autonomously operate, trade, and collaborate on-chain. Through its native cryptographic identity system, flexible permission orchestration mechanism, and efficient and stable payment capabilities, Kite provides the foundational infrastructure for the AI economy. The project’s core vision is to integrate AI and crypto payments at the Layer-1 level—combining agent credentials, native settlement, programmable governance, and transparent attribution within the mainchain environment. Merchants can access the Kite Agent App Store to make their offerings discoverable and selectable by AI agents. All transactions are settled on-chain, ensuring full traceability, and AI payments are programmable.

2. How Does Kite Work?

(1) Development environment and AI identity recognition system: Kite has built the Kite AIR (Agent Identity Resolution) system, which functions like an SDK for AI development. KitePass serves as the AI identity module, acting as a unique identifier for later tracking and incentive allocation.

(2) KiteVM consensus system: Kite operates on a novel consensus mechanism called Proof of Attributed Intelligence (PoAI)—a “PoW-like” framework tailored for AI usage. It quantifies each AI’s contribution across different processes, enabling contribution recognition and profit allocation. The mechanism includes evidence verification, measurement, distribution, and dispute resolution. According to official materials, PoAI can accurately quantify AI performance improvements within a given environment.

3. Who Founded Kite?

Founding Team:

Chi Zhang — Co-founder & CEO. He holds a PhD in Machine Learning/AI (Statistics) and an MA in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on explainable AI and causal inference. He previously led the development of an AI model for cancer diagnosis at Gilead Sciences, spearheaded data engineering product development at Databricks, and served as Chief AI Scientist at dotData.

Scott Shi — CTO. He formerly built real-time AI infrastructure at Uber and was a founding engineer for Salesforce Einstein AI. He holds degrees from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and Zhejiang University. As Chair of Uber’s Safety Data Engineering Committee, he led the development of Uber’s Scale AI platform and was also in technical charge of Salesforce Einstein. Besides, he holds multiple patents in data flow orchestration.

Funding:

Kite has raised a total of $33 million, led by PayPal Ventures and General Catalyst, with participation from 8VC, Samsung Next, SBI US Gateway Fund, Vertex Ventures, Hashed, HashKey Capital, Dispersion Capital, Alumni Ventures, Avalanche Foundation, GSR Markets, LayerZero, Animoca Brands, Essence VC, and Alchemy. In 2025, Kite secured additional strategic investment from Coinbase Ventures, following the PayPal Ventures round, to accelerate development of autonomous AI agent payment infrastructure and adoption of the x402 protocol.

4. Kite Tokenomics

Total Supply: 10,000,000,000 KITE; Initial Circulating Supply: 1,800,000,000 KITE (18%); Launchpool Rewards: 150,000,000 KITE (1.5%). Distribution Breakdown is as follows:

Ecosystem & Community (48%) — Supports community incentives, ecosystem growth, partnerships, and long-term development.

Modules (20%) — Specialized agent services that drive workflow automation and earn rewards based on verified usage.

Team, Advisors & Early Contributors (20%) — Incentivizes core team members, strategic advisors, and early project builders.

Investors (12%) — Allocated to institutional and individual investors who participated in funding rounds.

5. Timeline of Key Milestones

Feb 2025: Aero Testnet was launched and has processed over 546 million AI calls cumulatively.

May 2025: Ozone upgrade was released; total AI calls have exceeded 634 million, attracting around 13.6 million users.

Sep 2025: Agent App Store had onboarded 36 services, including Shopify, Uber, Masa and Irys, with deep integrations already completed for Shopify and PayPal.

Oct 2025: A strategic partnership with Brevis (a zero-knowledge verification layer supported by the Ethereum Foundation) was announced to build a trustworthy and viable service framework for AI payments.​

II. Token Information

III. Related Links