BUIDL Asia 2025: Builders Stay Building

Even in a quieter market, BUIDL Asia 2025 proved that momentum never really stops. It simply becomes more intentional. Against the backdrop of prolonged economic headwinds, rising global tariffs, and delayed hopes for interest rate relief, many teams have narrowed their focus. The noise has quieted, but the signal is getting clearer.

In Seoul, that clarity came through. BUIDL Asia was all about quality over quantity. The event brought together builders, researchers, and protocol teams for conversations that felt grounded and forward-looking. NEAR showed up with purpose. A presence that was focused, selective, and built around real progress at the intersection of crypto and AI.

A Week Rooted in AI and Ownership

The week opened with the Open Source AI Summit, co-hosted with NEAR AI. It brought together researchers, developers, and protocol teams aligned around a shared goal: to build decentralized, composable AI infrastructure that is open, trustless, and community-owned.

Illia Polosukhin, co-founder of NEAR Protocol, gave a keynote titled, “The Roadmap to a User-Owned Model”. He laid out a vision where AI is not just powerful, but also equitable. Illia spoke about the urgent need to counter centralized AI development by building systems where users can own, shape, and benefit from the intelligence they interact with. From open data and transparent models to the integration of crypto incentives and compute layers like NEAR, his talk made it clear that Web3 has a critical role to play in ensuring AI remains a public good.

That same day, the BUIDL AI Hackathon kicked off. Sponsored by NEAR AI, the three-day sprint brought together dozens of teams building at the frontier of crypto and AI. Out of 30+ submissions, more than one-third were built on NEAR. The momentum was unmistakable.

Highlights included:

• NEAR Analyst, a powerful dashboard for querying and sharing NEAR ecosystem research
• TrueLens, an AI-powered crypto news agent that filters headlines by sentiment and signal
• Fission, an executive AI assistant designed to help startup CEOs triage decisions and operations

One project in particular left a mark. Cure Me Baby was a mental health AI assistant built with privacy at its core. Using Trusted Execution Environments on NEAR, the app allowed users to speak with an agent about personal challenges in a secure and confidential way. It felt like a therapist, but without the surveillance risks of centralized AI. Cure Me Baby won prize money from NEAR AI and was awarded both Best Use Case and Best Overall Project of the hackathon.

NEAR on Stage: Defining the Future

As the main conference began, NEAR leadership took the stage not just to participate in the discourse, but to help guide it. Across keynotes, solo talks, and panel discussions, NEAR’s presence emphasized clarity, practicality, and forward motion.

Illia Polosukhin opened the main conference with Why NEAR Is the (Best) Blockchain for AI, expanding on his earlier vision for user-owned intelligence. He broke down how NEAR’s architecture — from sharding to developer-friendly abstraction — is purpose-built for AI-native apps. But the heart of the keynote was about values. Illia framed NEAR not just as infrastructure, but as a safeguard against centralized AI, one that keeps power in the hands of users and builders.

Later in the day, Altan Tutar of MoreMarkets delivered a sharp solo session titled Crypto Isn’t Modular Anymore, It’s Vertical. In his talk, he challenged the idea that composability is an inherent good. He argued that many projects today treat it as dogma, prioritizing endless choice over real usability. His vision was clear. Integration and intentional design matter more than technical purity. The strongest protocols going forward will offer cohesive experiences where each layer works in concert, not isolation. The talk struck a chord with builders frustrated by fragmented stacks and user flows that break down across layers.

Lane Rettig, representing the NEAR Foundation, brought both perspective and provocation to the panel Can Ethereum Win Again?. The conversation ranged from Ethereum’s cultural legacy to its shifting role in an increasingly multi-chain ecosystem. Lane focused on the long game, emphasizing the need for meaningful collaboration between chains rather than competition for dominance. He later moderated Put Your Money Where Your Mouth Is: The Future of Futarchy and On-chain Governance, one of the more experimental discussions of the week. The panel explored mechanisms that tie funding and decision-making to measurable outcomes. From prediction markets to values-based budgeting experiments, the conversation highlighted how new governance tools could align communities around shared missions rather than vague consensus.

Firat Sertgoz of MoreMarkets joined More Chains, More Problems?, a panel that tackled the ongoing challenge of fragmentation. Firat’s perspective helped shift the conversation from reactive to constructive. Rather than treating fragmentation as a permanent state, he offered a path forward grounded in chain abstraction and developer-first design. His contribution reframed abstraction not as a trendy solution, but as a necessary step toward making multi-chain development less chaotic and more accessible.

Clear Eyes, Full Hearts, Can’t Lose

Beyond the main stage and the hackathon, NEAR helped anchor some of the most meaningful gatherings throughout the week. These were not just side events. They extended the same focused energy that defined BUIDL Asia 2025. Curated, intentional, and filled with the right people.

The NEAR x Hashed Happy Hour offered a relaxed space for founders, partners, and protocol teams to connect away from the noise. It was less about structured networking and more about real conversations. Ideas were exchanged over drinks. Collaborations sparked without pressure. The kind of environment where momentum carries forward naturally.

To close out the week, the Huyndai Card VIP After Party, also supported by NEAR, brought together builders, researchers, and long-time collaborators for one final moment of connection. No cameras. No press. Just a well-curated room and the kind of off-the-record energy that reminds everyone why they are still here. It was a quiet highlight and a fitting end to a week built around substance. Sometimes momentum is quiet. Sometimes it looks like focus. And sometimes, it looks exactly like this past week in Seoul. IYKYK.