With Bitcoin holding above $88,000, the market has cooled just enough for infrastructure projects to breathe. This isn’t a momentum-driven phase—it’s a waiting phase. Kite AI is one of the projects quietly benefiting from that slowdown.
$KITE has spent most of December hovering around $0.088. It’s slightly up on the day, but far removed from the excitement that followed its launch. Market cap sits near $158 million, and daily trading volume is still strong at over $50 million—active, but no longer overheated. After listing on Binance, Upbit, and Bithumb on November 3 and seeing volumes explode past $260 million, the token has settled into something more sustainable.
What’s interesting is that while price cooled, usage didn’t. Under the surface, Kite’s agent infrastructure keeps moving. Transactions tied to x402 payments and MCP integrations continue to grow week over week. Developers are still building. In a market stuck in “Extreme Fear,” that kind of consistency matters more than short-term price action.
What Kite Is Actually Trying to Do
Kite isn’t trying to be everything to everyone. It’s not a general-purpose chain with “AI” slapped on top. It’s an EVM-compatible Layer 1 built specifically for autonomous agents—software that needs to prove identity, move money, and operate within rules humans can verify.
Identity is the foundation. Kite’s Passport system separates users, agents, and sessions, giving agents clear permissions, portable reputations, and the ability to be shut off when needed. By late 2025, more than 17 million passports had been issued. That doesn’t guarantee adoption, but it does show real experimentation at scale.
Payments are the second pillar. Native support for x402 (now V2) lets agents send stablecoin payments quickly and cheaply. Fees are much lower than earlier versions, and compatibility with tools like Anthropic’s MCP and Google’s agent frameworks makes integration easier. What’s changed recently isn’t just testnet metrics—it’s seeing those patterns move into actual mainnet workflows.
