About this episode
NEAR keeps showing up in strange places: cross-chain wallets, privacy apps, AI infrastructure, and now the emerging agent economy. Sal Ternullo, CEO of SVRN, joins us to explain why he thinks this is not another NEAR pivot, but the original thesis finally coming into focus. They dig into NEAR Intents, AI money, tokenomics, privacy, fee capture, agentic commerce, and why SVRN is trying to commercialize the NEAR ecosystem rather than simply hold the asset.---🧭OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDEhttps://bankless.cc/OKXapp---BANKLESS SPONSOR TOOLS:🔮POLYMARKET | #1 PREDICTION MARKEThttps://bankless.cc/polymarket-podcast🟦 COINBASE ONE | MEMBER MONTHhttps://bankless.cc/coinbase-one🧭OKX | TRADE, EARN, PAY to OKX | 120M+ USERS WORLDWIDEhttps://app.okx.com/join/USBANKLESS🦊 METAMASK | DOWNLOAD NOWhttps://go.metamask.io/BL-Pod-Download🌐BRIX | EMERGING MARKET YIELDhttps://bankless.cc/brix🎯THE DEFI REPORT | ONCHAIN INSIGHTShttps://thedefireport.io/bankless---TIMESTAMPS0:00 Intro2:23 Why NEAR Keeps Showing Up3:58 Pivot or Return to Roots?7:41 The “AI Money” Thesis9:54 Intents, Zashi, and Real Product Market Fit11:38 Tokenomics, Buybacks, and Value Accrual14:45 NEAR’s Different Approach From Ethereum18:00 Fees, Scaling, and First-Party Apps23:04 Cross-Chain Liquidity as NEAR’s Moat28:27 The Contrarian Investor Case for NEAR31:43 Privacy, Enterprises, and AI Agents39:38 What SVRN Is Building for NEAR46:00 Investor Sentiment and Final Thoughts---RESOURCESSal Ternullohttps://x.com/sal_ternulloSVRNhttps://x.com/svrn_ai---Not financial or tax advice. See our investment disclosures here:https://www.bankless.com/disclosures