NEAR Co-Founder Says On-Chain Expansion Will Reduce Need for Centralized Exchanges

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NEAR Protocol co-founder Illia Polosukhin said the expansion of on-chain financial services will reduce the need for centralized exchanges.

In an interview at Singapore's Digital Asset Summit 2026 on Oct. 7, The Block reported, Polosukhin said "many activities no longer require centralized exchanges." He added that NEAR's integrated on-chain platform, near.com, has "almost reached that level" and will continue adding features including bank withdrawals, transaction records for tax filing and selective disclosure for confidential transactions.

near.com offers spot trading across multiple blockchains, tokenized stocks, yield products and perpetual futures on a single screen. Polosukhin said most of NEAR Intents' infrastructure has been moved to confidential shards, allowing users to protect transaction data while selectively disclosing only necessary trades. To illustrate the limitations of centralized exchanges, he cited his own experience. "My account was deleted even though I knew the exchange's CEO," he said.