Catena Labs lands $30 million Series A, files for national trust bank charter to underpin agentic finance

Catena Labs, the agentic finance startup co-founded by Circle co-founder Sean Neville, has raised $30 million in a Series A round co-led by a16z crypto to build banking infrastructure compatible with artificial intelligence agents.

A16z crypto co-led the $30 million round, with the firm's Chris Dixon and Elizabeth Harkavy writing that Catena is building "a new category of regulated financial infrastructure purpose-built for autonomous software."

Catena builds the governance layer for AI agent transactions — tools that let humans set spending limits, define approved recipients, cap account holdings, and establish audit trails before handing financial execution off to agents. The company's $18 million seed, closed in 2025, was also led by a16z crypto.

The company has been accepted for filing a National Trust Bank charter with the OCC. If approved, it would make Catena a regulated fiduciary for AI agents — giving businesses and individuals a compliant framework for autonomous financial operations.

A16z wrote that agents need "bank accounts and payment rails they can access programmatically, along with clear rules and controls that keep humans in charge."

The bet lands as the agentic payments infrastructure race accelerates across the industry.

Coinbase launched the first wallet purpose-built for autonomous AI agents in February, The Block reported. In April, OKX debuted an agent payments protocol covering the full bot business cycle, including offers, quotes, disputes, and settlements. Deloitte has also forecast that AI and stablecoins will reshape financial services by 2030.