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anymose🐦‍⬛ 🔆
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一个软核科普作家 ｜ 入门 Web3 首选 #OKX https://t.co/SzXn2FlnZB ｜ Sahara #0041369
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anymose🐦‍⬛ 🔆
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What you see is a huge 33 million yuan financing, but what you don’t see is a war KITE AI officially announced its latest Series A funding round of $18 million, bringing its total raised to $33 million. While the "golden" experts understood the investment amounts and investment institutions, All In NFTs and profited 10x their profits. Meanwhile, the "king" experts understood that behind this funding round was a battle for dominance among global payment giants. Let’s dive in! ⬇️ @GoKiteAI There are so many highlights in this round of financing. Let’s break them down one by one. First, let me talk about the amount that was just completed: an $18 million Series A financing. I checked @RootDataCrypto and found that this is the second highest in the entire AI track this year. If you count the total investment amount, KITE can also be ranked in the top 10. Remember, this is just the beginning. KITE secured a $15 million seed round in February of this year and another Series A round in just six months. Its market positioning is very clear. As the basic transaction layer of the Agentic Internet, it can be summarized in a more concise term: AI payment. More importantly, Paypal Ventures and General Catalyst were the lead investors in both rounds of financing. Paypal Ventures is the investment arm of payment giant Paypal, and KITE AI is their sole and largest investment in the blockchain field. Why are they so eager to invest? The truth is, they have no choice. In 2023, Paypal partnered with Paxos to launch the stablecoin PYUSD, which is one of their largest investments in the crypto field. Users can use PYUSD through Payal or Venmo to complete payments, cross-border remittances, international payments, point-to-point transfers and other services. "Pay with Crypto" is Paypal's core strategy for 2025. The service can support more than 100 cryptocurrencies and wallets and has in-depth cooperation with Coinbase. Other giants are not idle either. Major competitor @stripe announced its entry into crypto payments in 2024, supporting stablecoins like USDC. It also launched stablecoin financial accounts in 2025, allowing businesses in 101 countries and regions to send and receive funds using cryptocurrencies. Since its own development was too slow, Stripe acquired the stablecoin platform Bridge and the crypto wallet company Privy, and then took Paradigm into developing Tempo, a dedicated payment blockchain. Meanwhile, established brand Visa is also eyeing the market, expanding its stablecoin payments and RWA platforms and investing in crypto custody company Anchorage Digital. Circle, not to mention stablecoins, has also launched its own public blockchain, Arc, making a strong showing. Looking at the current payments war, it's easy to understand why Paypal is betting on KITE. Fortune magazine just published an exclusive report that perfectly summarizes it: KITE AI covers identity, payments, and governance, and offers programmable payments and decentralized trust capabilities, making it a perfect match for traditional payment giants! KITE has meticulously refined the details of AI payments. It processes payments as contractual events, supporting both subscription and pay-as-you-go models, offering lower costs and greater security. Imagine Shopify simply integrating KITE AI to seamlessly integrate various AI agent shopping experiences, directly connecting the three primary use cases of blockchain, AI, and consumption. Compared to other giants developing their own payment chain strategies, investing in leading companies in the AI ​​payment sector is undoubtedly a more efficient approach. Many jokingly claim that KITE is now PayPal's protégé, but I still believe that investing in KITE AI is a blessing for PayPal amidst numerous competitors. / Another investment institution, General Catalyst, is a little unfamiliar but its strength should not be underestimated. It is one of the top three VCs in the United States, ranking higher than a16z. It is also the main investor in star payment projects such as Circle, Agora, and Parallax. It may be more famous in Web2. Its investment portfolio includes Canva, Stripe, Airbnb, etc. Another investment feature to point out is that it covers the mainstream capital of Europe, America, Japan and South Korea, including SBI, one of the largest financial groups in Japan, Hashed and Samsung Next, the top VC institutions in South Korea. This will be helpful in the future TGE. I can only congratulate in advance the boss @ChiZhangData, @scottshics and the Asia Pacific head @0xLaughing. This is a soft-core science article. Through this article, you can have a basic understanding of the following knowledge: What is KITE AI? ▰ The payment war pattern behind KITE investment ▰ It can still rush before TGE (not by anymose | a soft-core science writer * This article is for scientific purposes only and does not constitute any investment advice. Always remember DYOR!
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