Prime Highlights:
- Circuit & Chisel, founded by ex-Stripe executives, has raised $19.2 millionto launch ATXP, a new protocol for automated online transactions.
- ATXP aims to enable microtransactions and automated services, potentially transforming how programs interact with online content and payments.
Key Facts:
- The funding round included major investors such as Coinbase Ventures, Primary Venture Partners, and ParaFi.
- ATXP will support Stripe’s blockchain-based stablecoin, Tempo, and allow small online payments for services like accessing articles or private data.
Key Background:
In a major step forward for AI-driven payments, former Stripe executives Louis Amira and David Noël-Romas have raised $19.2 million to launch their new startup, Circuit & Chisel. The company’s flagship product, ATXP, is being described as the “HTTP for agentic payments,” designed to allow AI agents to autonomously execute transactions online.
Amira, who previously led crypto and AI partnerships at Stripe, explained that today’s AI agents lack a standardized protocol to interact with each other and access the wide range of information needed to function effectively. “The models are getting smarter, but they don’t have the right tools yet,” he said. ATXP is designed to help applications do tasks automatically, like booking services, getting information, or making payments.
The startup raised money from big investors, including Coinbase Ventures, Primary Venture Partners, and ParaFi, showing teamwork in a competitive market. The protocol also works with Stripe’s blockchain-based stablecoin, Tempo, supporting the growing use of crypto payments.
ATXP will let applications make small online payments, like paying to access articles or private information. This could change the way online content and information are monetized. While the technical details are complex, the main goal is to allow programs to operate independently while creating new opportunities for small revenue streams.
Amira highlighted that, much like HTTP transformed the early internet, ATXP is designed as a foundational tool rather than a direct money-making product. The company plans to develop its own programs using the protocol, but its success will depend on adoption across the web. When ATXP is used by a large number of people, it has the potential to cause a tremendous proliferation of new programs, as it did with mobile apps following the release of the iPhone.
As the interest in automated systems and crypto payments grows, ATXP by Circuit & Chisel may alter the manner in which the programs are operated in the digital economy.