SAN FRANCISCO — February 25, 2026
Executive Summary
NEAR has introduced an integrated blockchain and artificial intelligence infrastructure stack designed to serve as a unified execution and economic layer for autonomous markets. The release, announced during NEARCON in San Francisco, includes near.com, a multichain consumer super-app powered by NEAR Intents; Confidential Intents for restricted-visibility cross-chain execution; IronClaw, a hardware-secured AI agent runtime; a Confidential GPU Marketplace built on trusted execution environments; Nightshade 3.0 protocol upgrades; and a built-in revenue-sharing model anchored to the $NEAR token. Together, these components mark an evolution of the NEAR Protocol from a high-performance Layer 1 blockchain into a coordinated commerce infrastructure designed to support cross-chain liquidity, confidential compute, AI agent execution, and sustainable value capture across decentralized and enterprise environments.
Announcement Overview
NEAR announced the launch of a coordinated infrastructure stack combining cross-chain execution, confidential transactions, hardware-secured AI agent deployment, enterprise-grade confidential compute, and a token-aligned economic framework. The unveiling took place at NEARCON in San Francisco, described by the organization as its flagship AI conference, which brought together researchers and executives from major AI laboratories, enterprise cloud providers, financial institutions, and infrastructure companies.
According to NEAR, the objective of the new architecture is to abstract blockchain fragmentation while preserving user sovereignty and verifiable settlement. Rather than positioning itself solely as a throughput-focused Layer 1 network, the protocol now describes its role as a unified commerce layer capable of coordinating liquidity, confidentiality, execution, and economic incentives across autonomous agents and on-chain markets.
The stack includes consumer-facing interfaces, protocol-level upgrades, enterprise compute infrastructure, and economic mechanisms intended to align ecosystem growth with token value capture.
Key Announcement Details
- Announcement Type: Integrated infrastructure stack launch and protocol evolution update
- Announcement Venue: NEARCON 2026, San Francisco
- Announcement Date: February 25, 2026
- Core Strategic Objective: Establish NEAR as a unified commerce and execution layer for autonomous, agent-driven markets
- Primary Product Launch: near.com consumer-facing multichain super-app
- Execution Framework: NEAR Intents enabling one-click cross-chain execution
- Blockchain Connectivity: Cross-chain support across more than 35 blockchains through a single account abstraction
- Transaction Capabilities: Cross-chain swaps, peer-to-peer settlement, deposits, withdrawals, and routing abstraction
- Confidentiality Layer: Confidential Intents enabling restricted-visibility cross-chain transactions
- Confidential Transaction Scope: Transfers, deposits, withdrawals, and cross-chain settlement with verifiable on-chain execution
- Institutional Relevance: Confidential execution environment designed to mitigate frontrunning and strategy copying
- AI Runtime Launch: IronClaw open-source AI agent runtime
- AI Deployment Environment: Encrypted enclaves within NEAR AI Cloud
- Security Model: Hardware-enforced confidentiality protecting credentials and memory from host operators and intermediaries
- AI Agent Use Case: Always-on autonomous agents capable of secure workflow execution
- Enterprise Compute Launch: Confidential GPU Marketplace
- Compute Security Architecture: Trusted Execution Environment (TEE)-secured compute network
- Attestation Capability: Hardware-signed attestation delivered in under 30 seconds
- Data Protection Model: GPU operators unable to access memory in transit
- Target Workloads: Enterprise and government AI workloads requiring confidential inference
- Data Center Participation: Monetization of idle GPU capacity within confidential compute framework
- Protocol Upgrade: Nightshade 3.0
- Architectural Enhancements: Separation of consensus and execution
- Transaction Model Upgrade: Atomic transactions
- Privacy Infrastructure: Live private shard at protocol level
- Scalability Target: Architecture designed to scale beyond 1M+ transactions per second
- Economic Mechanism Introduced: NEAR Intents fee switch
- Revenue Model: Automatic revenue-sharing mechanism with integration partners
- Governance Scope: Product revenues deployable through governance subject to compliance requirements
- Token Alignment Mechanisms: $NEAR buybacks, buyback-and-earn programs, treasury actions
- Reported Revenue Deployment: 1M+ in $NEAR buyback directed via NEAR Intents
- Consumer Adoption Vector: Expanded native frontend usage through near.com
- Ecosystem Positioning: Unified liquidity, confidentiality, scalable execution, and economic alignment within one coordinated stack
- Event Participation Context: NEARCON attendance included representatives from OpenAI, Google, Intel, AWS, Oracle, and Brave
- Ecosystem Metrics Reported: $13B+ in multi-chain transaction volume
- User Base: Millions of users served across consumer and enterprise AI platforms
- Protocol Positioning Shift: Evolution beyond a high-performance Layer 1 into integrated infrastructure for autonomous markets
near.com and Universal Cross-Chain Execution
NEAR introduced near.com as a consumer-facing multichain super-app built on NEAR Intents. The interface connects more than 35 blockchains through a single account abstraction layer, enabling cross-chain swaps, peer-to-peer settlement, and optional confidential transaction flows without requiring manual bridging or routing.
According to the organization, near.com is designed to remove fragmentation between networks while preserving user control of wallets and settlement guarantees. By consolidating cross-chain interactions under a unified execution model, NEAR Intents abstracts the complexity traditionally associated with multi-chain activity. The user experience allows interaction across networks without requiring protocol-level manual coordination by the end user.
The launch reflects NEAR’s positioning as an execution layer capable of coordinating liquidity and transaction flow across heterogeneous blockchain environments. The organization states that users retain custody and sovereignty while execution logic operates across multiple chains through an intent-based architecture.
Confidential Intents and Restricted-Visibility Transactions
Integrated into NEAR Intents is Confidential Intents, a framework designed to support restricted-visibility cross-chain execution. According to NEAR, Confidential Intents enables users and institutions to opt into confidentiality across transfers, deposits, and withdrawals while preserving verifiable on-chain execution.
The feature addresses a structural limitation in decentralized finance environments where transaction transparency can expose participants to frontrunning or strategy replication. By allowing optional confidentiality layered into cross-chain flows, NEAR aims to provide an execution environment suitable for institutions and high-value actors requiring strategic privacy while maintaining cryptographic verification of outcomes.
Confidential Intents operates within the broader Intents architecture, ensuring that confidentiality does not compromise settlement guarantees. Execution remains verifiable, while transaction details may be restricted to authorized parties within the system’s parameters.
IronClaw and Hardware-Secured AI Agent Runtime
NEAR also introduced IronClaw, an open-source AI agent runtime deployed within encrypted enclaves on NEAR AI Cloud. IronClaw enables always-on autonomous agents to operate within hardware-secured environments that protect credentials and execution logic from host operators and infrastructure intermediaries.
According to NEAR, the runtime addresses growing demand for secure AI infrastructure as agents increasingly handle sensitive workflows, including financial execution and automated negotiation. By deploying agents inside trusted execution environments, IronClaw ensures that agent memory and credentials are shielded from external access.
The architecture is designed to combine blockchain settlement with confidential AI compute, enabling agents to transact and execute decisions while maintaining hardware-enforced confidentiality. NEAR positions IronClaw as a foundational component in enabling autonomous agents to operate in real economic environments.
Illia Polosukhin, Co-Founder of NEAR Protocol, stated that autonomous agents require universal execution, hardware-enforced security, and scalable settlement infrastructure to operate in real markets. He described the stack unveiled at NEARCON as a convergence of blockchain and AI into a unified commerce layer capable of global-scale execution.
Confidential GPU Marketplace and Enterprise Compute
NEAR introduced its Confidential GPU Marketplace as a trusted execution environment-secured compute network designed for enterprise and government AI workloads. Jobs executed through the marketplace run inside encrypted enclaves, with hardware-signed attestation delivered in under 30 seconds.
According to the organization, GPU operators cannot access memory in transit during execution, enabling sensitive workloads to run without exposing underlying data to infrastructure intermediaries. The design allows data centers to monetize idle GPU capacity while providing enterprises with confidential inference capabilities without building proprietary infrastructure.
The Confidential GPU Marketplace integrates with NEAR AI Cloud and IronClaw to support secure, distributed compute for autonomous agents and enterprise applications. The infrastructure is positioned as a bridge between decentralized networks and regulated enterprise workloads requiring strict confidentiality controls.
Nightshade 3.0 and Protocol Evolution
Supporting the application and compute layers is Nightshade 3.0, the next iteration of the NEAR Protocol. Nightshade 3.0 introduces separation of consensus and execution, atomic transactions, and a live private shard.
According to NEAR, these upgrades enable the protocol architecture to scale beyond 1M+ transactions per second while introducing privacy primitives at the protocol level. Separation of consensus and execution is designed to enhance scalability and performance, while atomic transaction support ensures coordinated execution across shards.
The introduction of a private shard expands the protocol’s capacity to support confidential workloads directly at the network layer. Nightshade 3.0 forms the technical foundation supporting cross-chain execution, confidential transactions, and AI agent coordination.
Revenue Sharing and Token Alignment
NEAR announced an economic alignment mechanism beginning with the NEAR Intents fee switch. The mechanism introduces automatic revenue sharing with integration partners as Intents usage scales across third-party distribution channels.
Through governance processes and subject to compliance requirements, NEAR product revenues may be deployed for buybacks of $NEAR, buyback-and-earn programs, and other treasury actions intended to support long-term ecosystem growth. NEAR Intents has already directed revenue toward more than one million dollars in $NEAR buybacks.
The organization stated that expanding native frontend usage through near.com may further increase value capture within the ecosystem. The combined economic mechanisms are intended to anchor $NEAR within a unified stack connecting execution, liquidity, AI infrastructure, and revenue distribution.
Integrated Architecture for Autonomous Markets
NEAR frames its latest releases as a unified execution architecture built to support autonomous economic systems. Cross-chain coordination through NEAR Intents, optional restricted-visibility flows via Confidential Intents, hardware-secured AI agents powered by IronClaw, enterprise-grade compute through the Confidential GPU Marketplace, and protocol-level scalability introduced in Nightshade 3.0 now operate within a single coordinated stack.
The architecture is designed to abstract blockchain fragmentation while preserving user custody, verifiable settlement, and hardware-enforced confidentiality. As AI agents increasingly transact and execute across on-chain markets, NEAR positions unified liquidity, confidential compute, scalable execution, and token-aligned economics as core infrastructure components. Together, near.com and the broader stack establish an integrated commerce layer intended to support agent-driven markets at global scale.
About NEARCON
NEARCON serves as NEAR’s flagship working forum dedicated to addressing system-level challenges at the convergence of artificial intelligence, decentralized infrastructure, and economic coordination. Designed as an invite-only gathering rather than a conventional conference, NEARCON convenes senior AI researchers, protocol architects, financial institutions, enterprise infrastructure providers, and open-source contributors for focused dialogue on the future of agentic markets.
The forum emphasizes interdisciplinary rigor over marketing spectacle. Discussions center on computational integrity, autonomous decision-making systems, confidential compute, on-chain settlement design, and the economic frameworks required to support AI-driven commerce. By bringing together practitioners from major AI laboratories, cloud providers, enterprise technology firms, and decentralized networks, NEARCON operates as a cross-sector exchange addressing the structural requirements of an emerging AI-native economy.
The 2026 edition is themed “Building an AI Economy Without Compromise,” reflecting a focus on security, verifiability, scalability, and economic alignment across AI and blockchain systems. The setting is intentionally intimate, structured to foster technical depth and institutional-level collaboration rather than broad public promotion.
About NEAR
NEAR is a blockchain and AI infrastructure platform designed to function as a unified commerce and execution layer for autonomous markets. Founded to address fragmentation across blockchain networks and the growing demand for secure AI coordination, NEAR integrates cross-chain execution, confidential compute, and scalable settlement into a coordinated protocol architecture.
The NEAR technology stack combines NEAR Intents for one-click cross-chain execution across more than 35 blockchains, NEAR AI for shielded intelligence and agent runtime environments, and a sharded blockchain infrastructure capable of scaling beyond 1 million transactions per second. This architecture supports cross-network liquidity, confidential transaction flows, and hardware-secured AI execution within a unified settlement framework.
According to the organization, NEAR has facilitated more than $13 billion in multi-chain transaction volume and serves millions of users across consumer-facing applications and enterprise AI platforms. Its infrastructure connects blockchain-based asset settlement with secure AI compute, enabling coordinated execution across crypto-native markets, traditional financial instruments, and emerging agent-driven economic systems.
The protocol’s Nightshade architecture separates consensus and execution, supports atomic transactions, and enables scalable sharding to meet global workload demands. In parallel, NEAR AI Cloud and trusted execution environment integrations support confidential AI agent deployment and enterprise-grade compute.
With a globally distributed contributor base and ecosystem participants spanning infrastructure builders, AI researchers, financial institutions, and application developers, NEAR operates at the intersection of blockchain scalability, confidential computation, and economic coordination. Its unified stack combines liquidity abstraction, hardware-enforced security, cross-chain interoperability, and token-aligned value capture mechanisms to anchor the $NEAR token within an evolving AI-native internet economy.
Media Contact
For additional information, visit near.org, nearcon.org & near.com.
Source Attribution
Source: Company announcement