Ex-NFL Star Tom Brady Returns to Crypto With Investment in AI Startup

Tom Brady is making a cautious however deliberate return to crypto. 

This time, he is backing Catena Labs, a Boston-based startup aiming to construct what it’s positioning because the world’s first AI-native monetary establishment, in keeping with a report by Entrance Workplace Sports activities.

Catena’s pitch is rooted within the thought of agentic commerce: autonomous AI brokers that transact on customers’ behalf.

Co-founded by Circle’s Sean Neville, greatest recognized for co-creating the USDC stablecoin, Catena emerged from stealth with $18 million in seed funding led by Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto division, a16zcrypto.

The funding spherical additionally noticed assist from Circle Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Stanford Engineering VF, and Breyer Capital, in addition to notable angel traders, together with Balaji Srinivasan, Bradley Horowitz, and Kevin Lin, amongst others.

The undertaking is constructing “an AI-native monetary establishment” that will “give AI brokers, and the companies and customers they serve, the flexibility to transact safely and effectively,” Neville mentioned in a assertion launched final week.

Catena plans to make use of regulated stablecoins like USDC to energy AI-driven transactions alongside conventional fee rails.

Catena Labs launched the Agent Commerce Package, an open-source software designed to assist AI methods confirm their identification and make funds independently, following its transfer out of stealth final week.

The agency contends that current monetary methods, from provide chain automation to retail purchasing, should not outfitted for AI-native interactions.

With Brady’s endorsement and backing from some crypto’s most elite companies, it is staking an enormous declare on the intersection of AI, finance, and infrastructure.

Second half

In his prime, Brady performed as a quarterback within the NFL and was extensively thought of one of many biggest of all time, successful seven Tremendous Bowl titles over a 23-season profession with the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

Brady’s earlier dive into crypto got here by way of FTX, the now-defunct trade whose 2022 collapse erased billions in buyer funds and despatched the business right into a tailspin for over a 12 months.

Serving as a paid model ambassador, Brady endorsed the platform by way of tv commercials and occasions, incomes as a lot as $30 million in firm fairness, which later misplaced its worth following prosecutors’ discovery that FTX had misappropriated buyer belongings to offset buying and selling losses.

The fallout left Brady entangled in a class-action lawsuit and marked one of many highest-profile movie star endorsements gone flawed. Earlier this month, Brady was cleared within the FTX lawsuit.Previous to Catena, Brady co-founded NFT platform Autograph, which raised $200 million earlier than pivoting from NFTs to concentrate on digital collectibles.

Edited by Sebastian Sinclair