AEON, which is building a settlement layer dedicated to AI agents, raised $8 million in a pre-seed round led by YZi Labs, an affiliate of Binance.

The Block reported recently that IDG Capital, HashKey Capital, Stanford Blockchain Builders Fund and Oak Grove Ventures also participated. The round structure and company valuation were not disclosed.

AEON said it will use the funds to develop a settlement layer that supports interactions among AI agents and build a "financial foundation needed for a new economic paradigm."

AEON in May launched its first AI payment product to help AI agents connect to more than 50 million offline merchants worldwide.

AEON also partnered with BNB Chain and launched the x402 Facilitator on BNB Chain infrastructure to support service providers with verifiable transactions, on-chain settlement and tamper-proof receipts.

Eddy Lyu (에디 리), AEON's CEO and co-founder, said production relations are shifting to an economy led by value exchange among autonomous agents and AI. He said a settlement layer for the agent economy will emerge and that this economic paradigm needs its own financial foundation. He said the company will use the funds to accelerate development of a settlement layer dedicated to AI and strengthen cooperation with ecosystem partners including Coinbase and BNB Chain.