The NEAR Foundation is moving its flagship conference to San Francisco on Feb. 23-24, 2026, with a focus on user-owned AI and decentralization.
By Zoran Spirkovski
Editor Hamza Tariq
Updated
3 mins read
After a break of more than two years, the NEAR Foundation is bringing back its flagship conference, NEARCON, and moving it to a new city. The event is set for Feb. 23-24, 2026, at the Fort Mason venue in San Francisco.
San Francisco is back. AI’s rising. Crypto’s building. The frontier is alive again.
That’s why we’re bringing NEARCON to SF: Feb 23–24, 2026.
This year’s theme? “The Internet Wants to Think.”
AI. Intents. Chain abstraction. Open-source everything. pic.twitter.com/6fha7UdPxl
— NEAR Protocol (@NEARProtocol) September 3, 2025
The conference is moving from its previous home in Lisbon, where the last event was held in late 2023.
According to an official blog post, the move to the Bay Area is a deliberate choice to be closer to the center of the AI revolution and follows other major investments by the foundation inAI agent development.
The theme for the 2026 event is “The Internet Wants to Think,” highlighting the protocol’s focus on the blend of AI and blockchain technology. The conference plans to explore the development ofuser-owned AI and what happens when AI agents can transact on-chain.
Attendees can expect keynotes from pioneers in AI and blockchain, live agent demos, and hands-on workshops, based on the announcement. The NEAR NEAR $2.41 24h volatility: 1.6% Market cap: $3.01 B Vol. 24h: $109.34 M event will also feature debates between industry leaders on topics like AI ethics and adoption.
The new location aligns with the vision of NEAR Foundation CEO Illia Polosukhin, a co-author of the influential “Attention Is All You Need” AI paper. Applications to attend or speak at the event are now open.
NEARCON 2023 drew around 3,000-5,000 attendees from across the globe, including developers, entrepreneurs, investors, and Web3 enthusiasts.
The event featured multiple venues for talks, workshops, and hackathons, with keynotes from NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin and other industry leaders.
Highlights included live demos, hands-on coding sessions, and discussions on AI, blockchain, and the open web, making it both an educational and networking hub for the NEAR ecosystem.
Details about the speakers for NEARCON 2026 in San Francisco have not yet been announced, but given the event’s history and its focus on AI and blockchain, it is expected to feature prominent leaders, innovators, and experts from across the industry.
Recently, NEAR has partnered with Aptos APT $4.29 24h volatility: 0.4% Market cap: $2.95 B Vol. 24h: $335.28 M to expand cross-chain capabilities.
🚨 Partnership drop: @Aptos X @Shelbyserves X @NEARProtocol
Two major breakthroughs:
1️⃣ Cross-chain swaps via NEAR Intents — $BTC → $APT in one click, no bridges
2️⃣ Shelby hot storage joins NEAR AI stack — powering fast, decentralized data for agentsWelcome to the agentic… pic.twitter.com/Ttnfy8DlD4
— NEAR Protocol (@NEARProtocol) September 3, 2025
Through NEAR Intents, users can now perform one-click swaps (e.g., Bitcoin BTC $110 871 24h volatility: 0.3% Market cap: $2.21 T Vol. 24h: $36.34 B to Aptos) across 19 blockchains with near-zero fees and 1.2-second finality.
This integration powers applications like Zashi and ThorSwap, with over $955 million in swaps across 115 tokens, bringing NEAR closer to a fully agentic, cross-chain internet.
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As a Web3 marketing strategist and former CMO of DuckDAO, Zoran Spirkovski translates complex crypto concepts into compelling narratives that drive growth. With a background in crypto journalism, he excels in developing go-to-market strategies for DeFi, L2, and GameFi projects.