Tether Backs AIsa Seed Round as Circle Eyes 40 New Stablecoin Markets

AIsa, a San Francisco-based infrastructure platform for enterprise AI agents, has closed a seed extension round with Tether and HIVEN joining as strategic investors, bringing the company's total funding past $9 million. Existing backers include Alibaba, Tribe Capital, Sumitopo Corporation, Draper Associates, and Saison Capital. Founder and CEO Jordan Liu described AIsa as building a "Trusted Resource and Transaction Network for Enterprise AI Agents," a governed, usage-based network that combines resource discovery, access control, metering, billing, and settlement for autonomous AI systems operating at scale. "Enterprise AI agents need trusted information, useful tools, and a governed way to transact," Liu said in a statement, framing the platform as a bridge between AI assistants and production-ready autonomous agents.

Meanwhile, Circle is preparing a major international expansion. CEO and Chairman Jeremy Allaire told Reuters, speaking on the sidelines of the IMF and World Bank meetings in Bangkok, that the stablecoin issuer is targeting entry into roughly 40 developing markets. "We're going through an inflection point, a transition right now, and that transition is essentially moving from the early adopter phase of blockchain technology into the mainstream scaling phase," Allaire said. Circle's push focuses on Southeast Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the Middle East, regions where demand for dollar-pegged digital dollars is accelerating amid currency volatility and limited access to traditional banking rails.

Underpinning both developments is a growing body of evidence around stablecoin utility. A new report highlighted substantial cost savings from stablecoin-powered remittances, particularly in emerging markets where traditional cross-border transfer fees remain punitive. Analysts say that as enterprises and individuals in markets increasingly adopting crypto increasingly adopt stablecoins for payments, savings, and cross-border settlement, the case for mainstream financial infrastructure integration strengthens. With Tether deepening its strategic footprint in AI-driven transaction networks and Circle scaling into dozens of new jurisdictions, the stablecoin sector is signaling that the next phase of growth will be defined less by speculative trading and more by real-world payment utility across the global economy.