NEAR Protocol co-founder Illia Polosukhin said onchain platforms are beginning to replace several functions traditionally handled by centralized cryptocurrency exchanges, as near.com adds fiat access, private transaction routing and tokenized securities to its trading interface.
Speaking during a live interview at Digital Asset Summit 2026 in Singapore on Wednesday, Polosukhin framed the expansion as an effort to let users move between bank money, crypto assets and tokenized products without relying on a single custodial platform. Near.com already combines multichain spot trading, perpetual futures, earn products and tokenized stocks, according to Polosukhin.
His argument drew on personal experience with custodial services. Polosukhin said a centralized exchange deleted one of his accounts, with the login page later indicating that the account did not exist. He said this occurred despite his familiarity with the exchange’s chief executive, illustrating the control platforms retain over access to user accounts and transaction histories.
Fiat access moves onto the product roadmap
Near.com is adding functions tied to conventional financial rails, including bank withdrawals and transaction records intended to help users prepare tax reports, Polosukhin said. Those additions would address two areas where decentralized trading platforms have often required users to return to centralized exchanges, banks or third-party portfolio tools.
The platform is also integrating with Monerium, a European electronic-money institution that issues the EURe stablecoin. Polosukhin said the integration allows users to transfer between euros held in a bank account and EURe through an IBAN, the standard bank-account identifier used across much of Europe.
He described the arrangement as an early example of the routes near.com wants to support. Future conversions could include U.S. dollars to euros or Singapore dollars to Hong Kong dollars through NEAR Intents, he said. NEAR Intents is the network’s system for expressing a desired outcome — such as exchanging one asset for another — while competing solvers seek to execute it.
The longer-term target is “any asset to any asset” routing, Polosukhin said. That ambition would place crypto swaps, foreign-exchange conversions and tokenized asset trades within the same execution framework, though the availability of each route would depend on banking partners, supported jurisdictions and liquidity.
Private routing becomes a central feature
Polosukhin said most NEAR Intents infrastructure has moved to a confidential shard, a part of the network designed to keep trade details private. Users would be able to selectively disclose individual transactions when they need records for reporting, compliance or other purposes.
Public blockchains generally make transaction details visible, creating opportunities for automated traders to observe pending activity and react before a trade is completed. Confidential execution aims to reduce that exposure while retaining the ability to prove or reveal particular activity when required.
The selective-disclosure model also reflects a practical challenge for onchain finance. Full privacy can make record-keeping difficult for users who must document gains, losses or payment flows. Polosukhin’s description suggests near.com is trying to combine private trade execution with user-controlled reporting rather than treating those functions as mutually exclusive.
No volume figures or market-share data for the confidential routing system were provided during the interview.
Tokenized Nvidia access follows Ondo integration
Near.com added tokenized stocks after an integration with Ondo Finance in September, according to Polosukhin. He said a user could move from euros into tokenized Nvidia exposure through the platform, with tokenized stocks from additional markets planned.
Tokenized securities products are structured differently from conventional brokerage shares, and access can vary based on a user’s location and the issuer’s terms. Their arrival on near.com nonetheless broadens the set of assets available through the same interface used for crypto trading and cross-chain swaps.
The product direction is designed to reduce the number of separate platforms a user needs for distinct activities: a centralized exchange for fiat conversion, a wallet for onchain trading, and a broker or specialist issuer for tokenized financial products. Whether near.com can deliver that experience at scale will depend heavily on its banking connections, regulatory availability and the reliability of its routing infrastructure.
Exploit exposed risks in the trading stack
The push toward broader financial functionality comes less than a week after an exploit affecting NEAR Intents led to a temporary service halt. The incident involved about $3.8 million, according to the material provided, and was linked to a bug in the interaction between Omni deposit-and-withdrawal infrastructure and the NEAR Intents smart contract.
The vulnerability was patched and services resumed. The funds were returned in full after NEAR Intents General Manager Alex Shevchenko issued an ultimatum to the party behind the exploit, according to the account of events provided.
The episode underlines the operational burden facing platforms that seek to combine cross-chain execution, deposits, withdrawals and fiat-linked services. Each added connection can make an interface more useful, while expanding the technical and security surface that must be monitored.
Polosukhin also discussed using artificial-intelligence agents as an interface for onchain activity. NEAR’s Agent Market applies the intents model to tasks written in natural language, he said. Funds are held in escrow and released after work is verified, allowing users to commission tasks without manually constructing each onchain action.
That model could extend the intents framework beyond trading into payments and digital services. For now, near.com’s immediate test is more concrete: whether it can make bank access, private execution and tokenized assets easier to use while maintaining the security standards expected of a platform handling users’ funds.
Explore how real-world assets meet crypto in our deep dive on tokenized equities and their growing onchain role.
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