NEAR Protocol co-founder Illia Polosukhin stated that improving on-chain trading and financial tools are decreasing user dependence on centralized exchanges. NEAR has integrated cross-chain spot trading, perpetual contracts, tokenized stocks, and yield products via near.com, with plans to add bank withdrawals, tax records, and selective privacy disclosure for private transactions. Polosukhin identified AI agents as a future interaction gateway for on-chain markets, enabling users to execute tasks through natural language commands. The protocol recently expanded euro fiat on-ramps through a partnership with Monerium and gained access to tokenized stocks via Ondo Finance.