Tether wants a hand in what happens when software starts spending money on its own. The stablecoin issuer led a $15 million Series A round in Mural, a New York-based startup that builds the plumbing AI agents would need to make payments.
North Island Ventures and existing investors also took part. The round brings Mural’s total funding to $28 million, according to an emailed announcement on Tuesday.
Guardrails for software that moves money
The sales pitch is control. Mural’s infrastructure lets companies set transaction limits, restrict which counterparties a payment can go to and require extra approvals for larger payments.
Those controls go after an open problem in what fintech companies call “agentic finance,” where AI systems initiate and carry out transactions for individuals or businesses. Once autonomous software can move money, someone has to answer who authorized a payment and who’s accountable when it goes wrong.
“As agents start moving money, that connection to the banks, payment networks and compliance systems the world still runs on becomes essential,” Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said in the statement.
Banks on one side, blockchains on the other
Former Palantir (PLTR) engineers founded Mural. The company sells fintechs and other platforms infrastructure for managing accounts, payments, identity verification and regulatory compliance, and it works across both traditional banking networks and blockchains.
It already has paying customers you’ve heard of. Payroll platform Deel uses it, and so does browser developer Opera.
Why Tether is writing the check
The deal adds to Tether’s investments in technology that lets AI agents handle payments. It also fits the company’s growing interest in infrastructure beyond issuing stablecoins, with programmable payments showing up as a possible use case for AI-powered financial services.
For now, that use case is a bet. Mural’s existing business with Deel and Opera is the part you can already point to.
