Tether Bankrolls AI Payments Startup Mural With $15M Series A

Stablecoin issuer Tether has headed a $15 million Series A investment in Mural, a New York company building tools that let AI agents move money. North Island Ventures and several earlier backers joined the round, lifting Mural’s total raised to $28 million. The news was shared in an emailed statement on Tuesday.

What Mural Does for Fintechs and Platforms

Founded by former Palantir engineers, Mural supplies the back end systems fintechs and other platforms need to run accounts, payments, identity checks and regulatory compliance across both traditional banking networks and blockchains. Payroll platform Deel and browser maker Opera are among its customers.

Guardrails for Agentic Finance

Interest in agentic finance, where AI software starts and completes transactions for people or businesses, is growing fast. Mural lets companies cap transaction sizes, limit which counterparties can be paid and demand extra sign-off on bigger payments. These controls tackle the question of who is authorized and accountable when autonomous software handles money. Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino said that once agents begin moving funds, a link to the banks, payment networks and compliance systems the world still depends on becomes essential.

Tether Looks Beyond Stablecoins

The deal points to Tether’s widening focus on infrastructure beyond issuing stablecoins. The company appears to see programmable payments as a promising use case for AI driven financial services.