Tether Backs AI Agent Firm AIsa, Circle Targets 40 Developing Markets

Tether has joined a seed extension round for AIsa, a San Francisco-based infrastructure startup building a “Trusted Resource and Transaction Network” for enterprise AI agents. The company’s founder and CEO, Jordan Liu, said the platform addresses fragmented providers, integrations, and billing systems that make it difficult for enterprise AI agents to operate at scale. Along with HIVEN, the investment brings AIsa’s total funding to more than $9 million and adds Tether to a syndicate that already includes Alibaba, Tribe Capital, Sumitopo Corporation, Draper Associates, and Saison Capital. Liu said the funding will accelerate “the transition from AI assistants to autonomous, production-ready agents.”

Separately, Circle CEO and Chairman Jeremy Allaire said the stablecoin issuer is preparing to enter roughly 40 developing markets, spanning Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East, where demand for dollar-pegged digital dollars continues to rise. Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank meetings in Bangkok, Allaire framed the expansion as a transition “from the early adopter phase of blockchain technology into the mainstream scaling phase.” Circle’s push comes as new data underscores the use case: a recent report highlighted substantial cost savings from stablecoin-based remittances in emerging markets, where traditional cross-border payments remain slow and expensive.

Bitcoin was trading near $81,167 on the day, up 0.23%, while Monero led gainers at 4.82% to $586.77. BNB edged up 0.31% to $712.65, Solana added 1.28% to $102.11, and Stellar climbed 1.91% to $0.1739. The moves underscored continued activity across both privacy and high-throughput chains as institutional players like Tether and Circle expand their footprints in AI infrastructure and global payments, respectively.