NEAR Bets Big on AI-Crypto Convergence with New Super App

Imagine telling your AI assistant to "book me a flight," and it handles the payment directly from your crypto wallet. That's the future NEAR is building with its new super app, Near.com—and it could reshape how we think about both money and artificial intelligence.

Goodbye Gas Fees, Hello Simplicity

Near.com tackles crypto's biggest problem: complexity. No more worrying about gas fees, managing private keys, or juggling multiple wallets across different blockchains. Users can handle bitcoin, stablecoins, NFTs, and other tokens in one streamlined interface.

"You don't need to think about blockchains. You don't need to think about gas, keys," said NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin during the launch. "You just use it as your main wallet."

But this isn't just another crypto wallet trying to go mainstream. NEAR is making a much bigger bet.

When AI Agents Become Economic Players

Polosukhin isn't your typical crypto entrepreneur. He co-authored the paper that introduced the transformer model—the architecture behind ChatGPT and most modern AI systems. His unique background puts him at the intersection of crypto's next evolution.

He believes we're entering what he calls the "agentic era," where AI doesn't just provide answers but takes action on users' behalf. As AI agents become capable of booking travel, managing emails, and handling purchases, they'll need the ability to transact.

"We are entering the world where AI is becoming our interface to compute," Polosukhin explained.

That's where crypto infrastructure becomes critical. Blockchains can provide programmable payments, global transfers, and automated settlement without traditional intermediaries. When AI systems start interacting with each other, they effectively become "economic actors"—software programs that negotiate, pay, and coordinate tasks.

The Privacy Paradox Solved

Blockchain's transparency has always been a double-edged sword. While it builds trust, it also exposes sensitive financial information. "Everything you do onchain is transparent," Polosukhin noted. "That's not realistic for usual use cases, for day-to-day usage."

Near.com introduces a "confidential mode" that keeps balances, transfers, and trading activity private within the network's security framework. This isn't just practical for individuals and businesses—it's essential for AI agents that may need to transact without revealing strategy or sensitive data.

Market Reality Check

The announcement comes as NEAR token dropped nearly 3% in 24 hours, reflecting broader crypto market uncertainty. But the timing might be strategic. While other projects chase the latest trends, NEAR is positioning itself for what could be the next major wave: AI-crypto convergence.

The question is whether the market is ready. Consumer adoption of crypto remains limited, and adding AI complexity could either simplify the experience or create new barriers.

The Billion-User Vision

"We have the stack. We have all the components. We have the product," Polosukhin said. "Now we're switching … to how we actually scale adoption—how we bring this to billions of people around the world."

That's ambitious talk in an industry where most "revolutionary" products struggle to reach millions of users, let alone billions.

The answers will determine whether we're witnessing the birth of a new economic paradigm or just another ambitious crypto experiment.