INTERVIEW: near:native’s AI Money Thesis—Intents, Privacy, & Tokenomics | Sal Ternullo
@NEARProtocol keeps showing up in strange places: cross-chain wallets, privacy apps, AI infrastructure, and now the emerging agent economy.
@sal_ternullo, CEO of
@svrn_ai, 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.
[TIMESTAMPS]
0:00 Intro
2:23 Why NEAR Keeps Showing Up
3:58 Pivot or Return to Roots?
5:34 The “AI Money” Thesis
7:47 Intents, Zashi, and Real Product Market Fit
9:31 Tokenomics, Buybacks, & Value Accrual
12:39 NEAR’s Different Approach From Ethereum
15:54 Fees, Scaling, and First-Party Apps
20:57 Cross-Chain Liquidity as NEAR’s Moat
25:14 The Contrarian Investor Case for NEAR
28:20 Privacy, Enterprises, and AI Agents
36:25 What SVRN Is Building for NEAR
42:48 Investor Sentiment & Final Thoughts