- NEARCON 2026 will take place Feb 23–24 at Fort Mason, San Francisco, with the theme “The Internet Wants to Think.”
- The move from Lisbon highlights NEAR’s focus on AI and decentralization, featuring demos, workshops, and debates.
- NEAR’s ecosystem expands with Aptos integration, enabling fast, low-fee swaps across 19 blockchains and 115 tokens.
After more than two years of silence, NEAR Foundation is bringing its marquee event, NEARCON, back to life—this time in San Francisco. Set for February 23–24, 2026, the conference will be hosted at the historic Fort Mason venue, with a theme that’s already sparking curiosity: “The Internet Wants to Think.”
From Lisbon to the Bay
The decision to shift NEARCON away from Lisbon, its previous home, isn’t just about scenery. According to the Foundation, it’s a strategic move to root itself closer to Silicon Valley, the epicenter of AI innovation. This relocation mirrors NEAR’s growing investments in AI agent development, where the overlap between machine intelligence and blockchain could shape an entirely new frontier.
The 2026 edition promises more than just keynotes and panels. Attendees can expect live demos of on-chain AI agents, workshops that dig deep into user-owned AI, and thought-provoking debates on everything from AI ethics to mass adoption. It’s not just a conference—it’s being framed as a proving ground for ideas that could push the boundaries of decentralization itself.
Big Vision, Bigger Stage
NEARCON 2023 pulled in between 3,000–5,000 attendees from across the globe. With its shift to the Bay Area, the scale and ambition of 2026 look set to be even bigger. While the full list of speakers hasn’t been announced yet, the involvement of Illia Polosukhin—NEAR’s CEO and co-author of the landmark “Attention Is All You Need” paper—suggests heavyweight voices in AI and blockchain will take the stage. Applications to attend or present are already open, signaling early buzz around what’s expected to be one of Web3’s biggest gatherings of the year.
Partnerships Powering the Ecosystem
Alongside the NEARCON announcement, the Foundation continues to strengthen its cross-chain reach. Through its integration with Aptos, users can now make one-click swaps across 19 blockchains with near-zero fees and 1.2-second finality. This system, called NEAR Intents, has already handled nearly $1 billion in swaps across 115 tokens, fueling apps like Zashi and ThorSwap. It’s a glimpse of NEAR’s broader vision for a seamless, agent-driven internet where AI doesn’t just think—it acts.
