ETHDenver 2025: Denver’s Crypto Beat

Denver, the Mile High City, played host to ETHDenver 2025 from February 23 to March 2, turning the National Western Complex into a nexus of Web3 energy. With its thin air and big ideas, the city was the perfect backdrop for a conference that blended technical sprints with visionary showcases. Amid the #BUIDLathon grind and Rocky Mountain views, the NEAR Foundation and its ecosystem made a powerful impact, rolling out a packed week of events, talks, and a sharp focus on the future of autonomous agents.

The Road to One Trillion Agents: NEAR’s Multi-Day Extravaganza

NEAR hit the ground running with “The Road to One Trillion Agents,” a multi-day event from February 25 to 27 that anchored its ETHDenver presence. This wasn’t a passive sit-and-listen affair—attendees engaged in hands-on workshops, whiteboard sessions, and in-depth explorations of NEAR’s AI stack. The event balanced deep technical discussions with social moments, keeping the energy high and the ideas flowing.

The kickoff on February 25 focused on the mechanics of autonomous agents, wrapping up with a lively Delphi x NEAR Happy Hour. The momentum continued on February 26 with a Founders & VCs Brunch alongside DFG and Jsquare—an ideal setting for high-level networking and deal-making—followed by advanced sessions dissecting AI’s future in Web3. The day concluded with the NEAR Eco Mixer, bringing together builders and investors over cocktails. By February 27, Founder Success’ NEAR AI Agent Games Day introduced an interactive element, blending competition with insights into NEAR’s ecosystem. Across three dynamic days, the stage was set for a trillion-agent future.

Sessions Worth Noting

• Kendall Cole (Proximity Labs) – Shade Agents unveiled the first truly autonomous, non-custodial, multi-chain AI agents on NEAR. He explained how blockchain solves authentication and payment challenges for AI agents, highlighting decentralized key management, TEEs, and smart contract integration. His session demonstrated how Shade Agents enable new AI-driven use cases like automated DeFi management and headless UIs.
• Pierre Le Guen (NEAR AI) – Private, Verifiable AI tackled the risks of centralized AI and introduced Trusted Execution Environments (TEEs) as a solution for secure, verifiable computations. His live demo showcased AI agents executing encrypted transactions and private inference, ensuring data security and decentralized AI governance.
• Oleg Fomenko (SWEAT) – Move in Action (MIA) introduced MIA, an AI-powered assistant integrated into the Sweat Wallet. Built on NEAR AI, MIA personalizes user experiences based on on-chain activity, physical activity records, and mobile device context. Trained on 700,000+ user interactions from Sweat’s “Walk into AI” feature, MIA marks a new era of AI-driven fitness and lifestyle engagement.

The Defining Moment: Illia’s Main Stage Spotlight

Illia Polosukhin’s February 27 talk, “Why 2025 Is the Year of Agents,” was a defining moment for NEAR at ETHDenver. Speaking on the Regeneratooor stage, he contested that 2025 marks a turning point for AI agents—decentralized, blockchain-powered, and poised to transform industries. With NEAR’s scalable infrastructure as the foundation, he outlined a world where agents handle tasks with trust and autonomy, fundamentally changing how we interact with technology. In that same talk, Illia dropped some major alpha with the Open Agent Alliance announcement. Teaming up with Coinbase and others, this collective aims to turbocharge AI-powered Web3 applications, pushing open, decentralized services forward (CoinDesk covered it here). It’s a power play, aligning with the biggest names in AI and Web3 towards the common goal of an open decentralized future.

But that wasn’t all—Illia also introduced AITP: Agent Interaction and Transaction Protocol, a groundbreaking initiative designed to create a common standard for AI agents to communicate and transact securely across networks. AITP enables AI-driven commerce, structured interactions, and interoperability between agents, setting the stage for a seamless Internet of Agents where AI can autonomously represent individuals, businesses, and institutions. More than just an advancement, AITP is a foundational step toward a fully agentic web, where AI doesn’t just assist but operates independently within decentralized ecosystems. With these announcements, NEAR isn’t just predicting the agentic web—it’s building it.

It Takes a Village

NEAR’s presence at ETHDenver was far more than a series of talks—it was a comprehensive exploration of AI, blockchain, and the transformative potential of decentralized technologies. The side events became a vibrant canvas where NEAR’s thought leaders painted a nuanced picture of technological convergence.

Mark Mi emerged as a strategic navigator, moderating “The Rise of Liquid Venture” at the Tokenized Capital Summit. His panel probed the digital transformation of venture capital, exploring how blockchain is reimagining investment models. At the AiFi Summit, he looked further ahead, forecasting the critical roles of artificial intelligence and decentralized finance in Web3’s evolving ecosystem.

Matt Lockyer challenged conventional narratives with his provocative “Beyond Memecoins” presentation. Speaking for Proximity Labs, he argued for multi-chain AI agents with genuine staying power. His talk wasn’t just a critique of speculative blockchain trends, but a forward-looking vision of how AI agents could create more meaningful, sustainable technological infrastructures.

Bowen Wang delivered perhaps the most technically profound talk, unpacking “From Sharded Blockchain to Sharded Smart Contract.” His presentation dove deep into scalability challenges, offering insights into how NEAR is approaching the critical problem of blockchain efficiency. Wang’s talk wasn’t just a technical exposition, but a blueprint for how blockchain architectures might evolve to support more complex, interconnected systems.

Together, these voices represented more than individual presentations. They crafted a comprehensive narrative about NEAR’s vision: a future where blockchain, AI, and decentralized technologies don’t just coexist, but fundamentally transform how we conceive of digital infrastructure, investment, and autonomous systems.

Community Fuel and Agent Momentum

The “Road to One Trillion Agents” wasn’t just a slogan, but a tangible roadmap. From last year’s Chain Abstraction narrative to this year’s agent-centric focus, NEAR’s ecosystem demonstrated remarkable strategic evolution. Concrete wins like the Open Agent Alliance and SWEAT’s Mobile Intelligence Agents (MIA) transformed theoretical potential into real-world progress.

Builders weren’t just listening—they were actively engaging, diving deep into agent development with an infectious enthusiasm. The ecosystem’s energy suggested something profound: NEAR isn’t just predicting the future of decentralized AI, it’s actively constructing it. By March 2, ETHDenver 2025 had crystallized into more than an event—it was a launchpad, with NEAR’s agents positioned to redefine technological boundaries.