NEARCON 2026 San Francisco Focuses on AI and Scaling

NEARCON 2026 Overview and Context

NEARCON 2026 will be held February 23 to 24, 2026, at Fort Mason Center in San Francisco. The invite only event focuses on AI, privacy tech, and decentralization, featuring keynotes, demos, workshops, and possible product announcements from NEAR leaders.

Announced in September 2025, it follows virtual sprints, speaker reveals, and community promotions. Social media buzz with countdowns and AI Web3 content kept engagement high, making this a planned milestone rather than a surprise for the ecosystem.

Past NEARCON Events and Market Reactions

NEARCON is NEAR Protocol’s flagship conference, and past editions offer useful context ahead of its 2026 return. The 2021 Lisbon event marked NEAR’s one year mainnet anniversary and introduced an $800 million ecosystem fund, driving the token from $6.91 to $10.18. A year later, the 2022 edition expanded in scale despite a deepening bear market, though prices declined from $4.19 to $3.63.

NEARCON 2023 focused on AI blockchain integration, attracting 3,000 to 5,000 attendees. NEAR rose from $1.84 to $2.80 during the event and closed December at $3.65. These editions show NEARCON drives engagement and ecosystem growth, with market conditions influencing token reactions.

NEARCON Historical Market Reactions

NEARCON 2021 (October 26–27) saw NEAR token prices rise moderately, with a brief dip after the event. Crypto Twitter buzzed positively about ecosystem growth and the $800 million fund, which boosted developer activity, DeFi and NFT projects, and network adoption.

NEARCON 2022 (September 11–14) occurred in a bear market, with declining prices and muted sentiment. Network metrics improved, adding over 100,000 daily users and 1 million daily transactions. NEARCON 2023 (November 7–10) aligned with market recovery, driving price gains and excitement around AI integration. New partnerships, ecosystem grants, higher TVL, and decentralized AI tools followed.

What Readers Should Watch Next for NEARCON 2026

NEARCON 2026, on February 23 to 24 in San Francisco, highlights NEAR Protocol’s AI blockchain focus, including scaling, chain abstraction, and user owned intelligence. Key things to watch include pr event Intents Day on February 18, live demos and keynotes during the conference, and post event networking. Ecosystem metrics like transaction throughput, MPC network expansion, and adoption of decentralized AI tools in Q1 to Q2 2026 will show how the protocol’s AI pivot performs.

Governance and roadmap updates include NEAR tokenomics proposals, sharded RPC nodes, and privacy focused AI infrastructure. Confirmations to track are partnerships, live agent demos, and adoption metrics. Risks such as technical delays, regulatory scrutiny, market volatility, or low engagement could affect momentum. These developments will indicate whether NEAR can strengthen its role in decentralized AI and multi chain innovation.