January 20, 2026, 10:01AM EST

Building AI-native blockchain infrastructure with Kite AI's Lei Lei

Lei Lei, Head of BD, Kite AI

Back to Layer One

Episode 4 of Layer One, hosted by The Block's Kelvin Sparks and Hypha founder Steven Gates, was recorded with Kite AI's Head of BD and Strategy Lei Lei.

Listen below, and subscribe to Layer One on YouTube, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Please send feedback and revision requests to [email protected].

In episode four of Layer One, The Block's Kelvin Sparks and Hypha Founder Steven Gates were joined by Kite AI's Head of Business Development and Strategy, Lei Lei, to discuss why AI agents need dedicated blockchain infrastructure rather than general-purpose blockchains. The trio also touched on the recent hype around Claude Code, why enterprise giants are panicking about AI disruption, and how the X-402 payments protocol generated $600 million in volume last year.

OUTLINE
00:00 - Introduction
01:13
- Claude Code
04:26
- Why Avalanche
09:40 - X-402 Explained
13:01 - General Purpose Chains
19:37 - Swarms Gone Rogue
26:53 - Crypto-Native Enterprises?
30:03 - $600M & Counting
37:04 - Big Name Backers
42:07 - Winners & Losers
47:30
- Outro

GUEST/HOST LINKS
Lei Lei - ⁠x.com/lei_lei0904⁠
⁠⁠⁠KiteAI - ⁠⁠x.com/GoKiteAI⁠
Steven Gates - twitter.com/stvngts
Kelvin Sparks - twitter.com/imyoungsparks


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