“Can a chartered bank purpose-built for AI agents own the money layer of the agentic economy?”
Catena Labs was founded in 2022 by Circle co-founder Sean Neville and former Circle product engineering SVP Matt Venables to build a bank purpose-built for AI agents. The thesis: fintech platforms only route money, while agents transacting at scale need a chartered bank that can hold funds, govern them, and stand behind them. Catena operates through regulated partners today while pursuing an OCC national trust bank charter to become bank-backed itself; its stack pairs a non-custodial digital-asset account (via Turnkey TEEs) with fiat and stablecoin liquidity, deterministic policy enforcement, and immutable audit trails for agent actions.
Catena Labs has applied for a national trust bank charter for Catena Trust Bank, N.A. with the OCC. Status: conditional approval (2026-09-18).
Catena Labs moves money over ACH.
Catena Labs's lending and capital products are provided by affirm.
Catena Labs uses Airwallex for FX and cross-border payouts.
Catena Labs's crypto products run on Turnkey.
The Embedded Finance Index 2026 maps 5 layers in Catena Labs's stack: Money movement (ACH); Lending (affirm); FX & payouts (Airwallex); Crypto (Turnkey); Spend / AP (Brex).
Catena Labs was founded by Sean Neville and Matt Venables and is founded in 2022, headquartered in Boston, Massachusetts, United States.
Catena Labs has raised $48M in total (latest round: Series A, 2026).
Get a read on where your own stack stands against Catena Labs and the rest of its category — what they built versus bought, which providers they use, and where the gaps in your own strategy and competitive set actually are.