Seize the AI Revolution: How NEAR AI’s Blockchain Powers Wealth and Freedom for Investors

Seize the AI Revolution: How NEAR AI’s Blockchain Powers Wealth and Freedom for Investors originally appeared on TheStreet .

Imagine a future where your AI agent buys, sells, and negotiates for you—securely, instantly, and without Big Tech’s prying eyes. A world where you own your data, your assets, and your profits, free from corporate or government control. That’s the vision of NEAR AI, a cutting-edge project within the NEAR Protocol ecosystem, built to merge blockchain’s decentralization with AI’s limitless potential. Eric Winer, CTO of NEAR AI, reveals how their lightning-fast, AI-focused blockchain is creating a new era of wealth-building opportunities for high net-worth individuals and family offices.

From Crypto Pioneer to AI Trailblazer

Eric Winer’s 11-year crypto journey began as the first engineer at Gemini, the U.S.’s first fully regulated crypto exchange. “I helped grow that team,” Winer shared, before joining the NEAR Protocol ecosystem two years ago and becoming CTO of NEAR AI seven months back. NEAR’s origin story is rooted in AI innovation: founded in 2017 by AI researchers aiming to build an AI coding agent, they needed a blockchain to pay global data labelers efficiently. “Blockchains at the time were slow and expensive,” Winer explained. “They built NEAR for day-to-day interactions, helping people own their data and assets.”

Today, NEAR AI tackles a pressing problem: Big Tech’s grip on AI. “Open AI, Google, and others build compelling tools, but the more you use them, the more you’re pushing your interactions through proprietary systems,” Winer warned. Google’s AI could soon prioritize sponsored content over your interests, just as search ads do now. NEAR AI offers an open, decentralized alternative, ensuring you control your data and transactions in an AI-driven world.

Blockchain AI: Open Space, Endless Opportunities

How does NEAR AI stack up against giants like Open AI or Google? “Big labs lead in base models like GPT-4.1,” Winer admitted, “but the tooling around them is wide open.” While ChatGPT offers raw AI interaction, NEAR AI envisions a world where AI agents act as your proxies—conducting interviews, selling products, or navigating government services. “That world is coming, and it’s open for innovation,” Winer said. Unlike Big Tech’s walled gardens, NEAR AI fosters an internet-like ecosystem where anyone can build and experiment.

NEAR’s blockchain is uniquely suited for this. “It’s fast, scalable, and can direct activity on other blockchains,” Winer noted. For example, you can execute Ethereum trades using a NEAR wallet. This interoperability, combined with NEAR’s AI roots, makes it a powerhouse for decentralized AI applications, from secure data markets to autonomous trading agents.

Why TradFi Investors Should Bet on NEAR AI

For high net-worth individuals and family offices dipping into crypto, NEAR AI is a golden opportunity. “As businesses and governments use AI more, agents will talk to each other, handling asset transfers, escrow, and disputes,” Winer predicted. These AI-to-AI transactions will favor digital-native solutions like crypto over clunky wire transfers. “When my AI buys from another AI, it’ll use crypto,” he said, opening a massive market for decentralized finance.

NEAR’s speed and scalability make it ideal for this AI-driven future. “NEAR is faster than LLMs and one of the most scalable blockchains,” Winer emphasized. Its ability to interact with Ethereum, Solana , and beyond positions it as a “home base” for cross-chain activity. With over 250 million transactions and 1.2 million daily active users in Q3 2024, NEAR’s ecosystem is booming. Franklin Templeton’s 2025 outlook named NEAR a top DePIN player, signaling its investment potential.

NEAR’s Edge: Built for AI from Day One

NEAR isn’t just riding the AI wave—it was designed for it. “NEAR was built with AI in mind before anyone else,” Winer said. Its low-cost, high-speed transactions (0.01 cents, sub-second finality) outpace competitors like Ethereum, while its developer-friendly tools attract innovators. Projects on NEAR are experimenting with AI-driven apps, from data marketplaces to autonomous agents, much like early mobile apps reshaped the internet. “Whatever works, it’ll be built on our technology,” Winer predicted.

Seize the AI Revolution: How NEAR AI’s Blockchain Powers Wealth and Freedom for Investors first appeared on TheStreet on Jun 3, 2025

This story was originally reported by TheStreet on Jun 3, 2025, where it first appeared.