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NEAR Protocol Co-Founder Sees Onchain Tools Replacing Centralized Exchanges

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Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol (NEAR), stated that the expanding capabilities of onchain tools on near.com are reducing the necessity for centralized cryptocurrency exchanges. Speaking at an industry event in Singapore on Wednesday, Polosukhin highlighted the platform's ongoing efforts to integrate traditional financial services directly onto the blockchain, aiming to offer a comprehensive alternative to centralized platforms.

The shift toward decentralized alternatives comes as near.com consolidates spot trading, perpetual futures, yield products, and tokenized stocks into a single interface. The platform recently integrated with Ondo Finance to offer tokenized equities, such as Nvidia, and is working with Monerium to support direct euro-to-crypto bank transfers. These developments aim to streamline cross-asset transactions, allowing users to move seamlessly between fiat currencies and tokenized global assets without relying on intermediaries.

Despite these advancements, decentralized infrastructure continues to face security challenges. Just last week, the NEAR Intents system resumed operations after patching a vulnerability that led to a temporary service halt and a $3.8 million exploit, though all funds were ultimately recovered. Moving forward, the project plans to expand its global stock offerings, roll out more fiat currency pathways, and implement natural language artificial intelligence agents to execute onchain market tasks.

Key points

  • NEAR Protocol (NEAR) co-founder Illia Polosukhin stated that onchain tools are reducing the need for centralized cryptocurrency exchanges.
  • The platform near.com integrates spot trading, perpetual futures, and tokenized stocks, with plans to expand fiat currency options.
  • The project recently recovered from a $3.8 million exploit on its NEAR Intents infrastructure after patching the vulnerability.
  • Future plans include expanding global stock offerings and utilizing artificial intelligence agents to handle onchain market tasks.

Written by our AI from expert market sources across the web. It can contain mistakes: check the facts before acting on them. Write-ups powered by the free AI API at FreeTheAI.org

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Questions and answers

How is NEAR Protocol planning to replace centralized exchanges?

NEAR Protocol is expanding its onchain platform, near.com, to include spot trading, perpetual futures, tokenized stocks, and bank withdrawals, aiming to handle direct transactions between any asset class.

What happened during the recent NEAR Intents exploit?

A bug in the interaction between the Omni infrastructure and the NEAR Intents smart contract led to a $3.8 million exploit. The vulnerability was patched, and all funds were returned in full.

How will AI agents be used on the NEAR network?

NEAR is developing an Agent Market that allows users to request tasks in natural language, with AI agents executing the work and funds held in escrow until completion is verified.