Although losses were incurred due to the collapse of FTX, Tom Brady is making a return to the crypto sector. This time, an investment has been made by him in a fintech startup that is centered around artificial intelligence.
A careful yet intentional reentry into the crypto space is being made by Tom Brady.
This time, support is being extended by him to Catena Labs, a startup headquartered in Boston that is aiming to establish what is being positioned as the world’s first AI-native financial institution, as reported by Front Office Sports.
The concept of agentic commerce—where autonomous AI agents conduct transactions on behalf of users—has been presented as the foundation of Catena’s value proposition.
Catena was co-founded by Sean Neville, recognized for his role in co-creating the USDC stablecoin at Circle, and was brought out of stealth mode with $18 million secured in seed funding. The funding round was led by a16zcrypto, the cryptocurrency division of Andreessen Horowitz.
Participation in the funding round was also provided by Circle Ventures, Coinbase Ventures, Stanford Engineering VF, and Breyer Capital, along with several prominent angel investors such as Balaji Srinivasan, Bradley Horowitz, and Kevin Lin, among others.
The development of “an AI-native financial institution” is being undertaken by the project, with the aim of enabling AI agents—alongside the businesses and consumers they support—to conduct transactions in a secure and efficient manner, according to a statement released last week by Neville.
Regulated stablecoins such as USDC are intended to be utilized by Catena to facilitate AI-driven transactions in conjunction with conventional payment systems.
Following its emergence from stealth last week, the Agent Commerce Kit was introduced by Catena Labs—an open-source tool created to enable AI systems to authenticate their identities and execute payments autonomously.
It is argued by the firm that current financial infrastructures, ranging from supply chain automation to retail commerce, have not been designed to accommodate AI-native interactions.
With support from Tom Brady and backing provided by some of the most prominent firms in the crypto industry, a bold position is being taken by the project at the convergence of artificial intelligence, finance, and technological infrastructure.
The Latter Half
During his peak, the position of quarterback was held by Brady in the NFL, where he was widely regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. Over a 23-season career with the New England Patriots and Tampa Bay Buccaneers, seven Super Bowl titles were secured by him.
Brady’s initial involvement in the crypto space was made through FTX, the now-bankrupt exchange whose collapse in 2022 wiped out billions in customer assets and plunged the industry into turmoil for more than a year.
Brady was engaged as a paid brand ambassador for the platform, promoting it through televised advertisements and public appearances. Compensation reportedly reached up to $30 million in company equity, which ultimately became worthless after it was revealed by prosecutors that FTX had misused customer funds to cover trading losses.
As a result of the fallout, Brady was drawn into a class-action lawsuit, representing one of the most prominent instances of a celebrity endorsement gone awry. However, earlier this month, he was cleared of any wrongdoing in connection with the FTX case.
Before the launch of Catena, an NFT platform named Autograph was co-founded by Brady. The platform had raised $200 million in funding before shifting its focus from NFTs to digital collectibles.
