Since Near launched Intents in 2024, the structural shift between how crypto moves between chains has become visible. Prior to Intents, a user had to pick a bridge, weigh its security, approve a contract, confirm a route, and only then, after a sequence of decisions that had nothing to do with the trade you actually wanted, did the asset arrive on the destination chain.
That gap between the result a person wants and the instructions the system demands is where most of crypto's friction and most of its danger have lived. It is also where the model is now changing.
Why SimpleSwap chose to Integrate NEAR Intents
NEAR Intents now runs inside SimpleSwap, a self-custodial swap aggregator that has been live since 2018 and has served more than 10 million users. SimpleSwap holds no balances. Funds move from a wallet you own to a wallet you own, with route and provider selection handled across more than twenty liquidity providers. The user does not compare options or assemble the swap by hand. The aggregator does that underneath.
"Intent-based providers operate differently at the infrastructure level. No wallet connection on the user side, outcome-driven execution, and clean API integration. That combination fits how SimpleSwap is built, and it's the direction we want the liquidity layer to move." — Stefan Lauer, Head of Infrastructure, SimpleSwap
SimpleSwap now runs two execution models inside one engine. Transactional providers, the CEXs and DEXs, sit in the same pool as an intent provider. They do not behave the same way. A transactional provider quotes a price against a known path. An intent provider returns an outcome and lets a solver network find the path. When both live in one aggregator, the engine's job gets harder in an interesting way: for any given swap, it chooses not only the best price but the right execution model to reach it. The aggregator stops being a price comparison tool and becomes a router between two different theories of how a swap should happen. NEAR Intents moves outcomes across the entire market.
For the SimpleSwap user, none of this is visible. You start a swap the way you always have. NEAR Intents handles the cross-chain routing in the background, and the asset you asked for arrives.
NEAR Intents provide a novel transaction framework for exchanging assets and executing actions across multiple chains and off-chain. As a universal means for humans and agents to exchange value, NEAR Intents bring more functionality to established platforms like SimpleSwap. The same property that lets a person declare an outcome instead of routing it by hand is what lets an automated agent do the same: a declared goal is something software can express directly, without a human clicking through approvals.
"SimpleSwap has built a reputation for making crypto easier to use, which is exactly why this integration is a perfect fit. By bringing NEAR Intents to their users, we're removing complexity from cross-chain transactions and making it easier for people to access the assets they want. We're excited to work with the team at SimpleSwap." — Dillon Freeman, Head of Partnerships, NEAR
Check it out for yourself: swap assets using NEAR Intents in SimpleSwap today!