The Near Foundation unveiled a $20 million accelerator fund to enrich AI Agents’ growth within its ecosystem.
The development comes weeks after the team expanded the platform’s AI agent sector with features that boost utility and user experience.
The Foundation will release the liquid fund on-chain in the coming months to support agent projects powering artificial intelligence utility and top-notch consumer solutions.
$20m. One mission.
Introducing the AI Agent Fund from the NEAR Foundation.
Investment dedicated to decentralized AI use cases and mass market consumer solutions.
Meanwhile, the Near Foundation will invest in AI agent projects that advance the on-chain agentic design space.
The NEAR team will collaborate with ecosystems such as Frax and Sky to accelerate the introduction of AI agents-powered use cases for lucrative opportunities.
The announcement added:
By creating this agent fund, the Foundation hopes to bring more builders on board to the exciting possibilities unlocked by NEAR’s tech at the intersection of crypto and AI.
NEAR’s fully verifiable AI agent development stack includes some unique core primitives that offer a full spectrum of developer tooling options.
The fund underscores Near Foundation’s dedication to supporting technological innovations in the financial sector.
The NEAR ecosystem believes AI agents will transform the future of business and commerce.
The new fund will also support other builder-centered initiatives within the Near Blockchain.
These include AI hackathons and Horizon AI accelerator categories to bolster web3 and artificial intelligence initiatives.
Near Foundation’s moves come as artificial intelligence and crypto connections heat up.
OpenAI CEO expects AI agents to unleash their transformative power in 2025.
Sam Altman says AI agents are going to “really transform things” in 2025 with the ability to use tools and create things of value
AI agents stand at the intersection of cryptocurrency and AI– a sector that “remains largely untapped so far.”
Near Protocol plans to leverage its AI agent infrastructure to ensure innovation in crypto x AI.
Builders will use the accelerator fund to introduce advanced ideas and products (exclusively possible) in the NEAR ecosystem.
NEAR taps artificial intelligence to enhance the adoption and innovation of the evolving tech world.
Most AI interfaces maintain anonymity on user data utilization and model training.
Meanwhile, Near wants to change that with high-end AI tech that gives users control.
The Foundation added:
The NEAR ecosystem envisions a future in which groundbreaking AI and the sovereignty of communities and individuals are not at odds, but rather symbiotic – leading to new economic opportunities, novel business models, and a diverse technology landscape no longer controlled by a few mega-corporations.
NEAR price outlook
That altcoin was yet to react to the AI agent fund news as it mirrored broad market sentiments.
NEAR lost over 2% on its daily chart to trade at $3.28.
Cryptocurrencies remain downbeat amid macroeconomic woes.
Bitcoin sways above $97K, as the global crypto market cap plummeted 1.86% in the past day to $3.18 trillion.
Meanwhile, Near Protocol’s ongoing AI developments signal a lucrative future for the crypto project.
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