OceanPal Secures $120 Million to Establish NEAR Token Treasury Company

OceanPal raises $120M to build NEAR token treasury company

OceanPal Inc., a company listed on Nasdaq, has successfully raised $120 million through a private investment deal. This funding will help launch SovereignAI, a subsidiary aimed at commercializing the NEAR Protocol and developing artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure. The partnership with the NEAR Foundation highlights a collective vision for "universal AI sovereignty."

Key Takeaways

OceanPal Inc. has raised $120 million to create SovereignAI.
The new subsidiary will focus on commercializing the NEAR Protocol and developing AI infrastructure.
OceanPal plans to acquire up to 10% of the NEAR token supply as part of its crypto treasury strategy.
The NEAR Foundation and OceanPal share a common vision for advancing AI technology.
NEAR is a layer-1 blockchain built to support various AI applications.
A change in leadership at OceanPal includes the appointment of Sal Ternullo as co-CEO and David Schwed as COO.
Industry experts view the integration of AI agents in cryptocurrency as a growing trend.

Main Content

Nasdaq-listed OceanPal Inc. has announced that it raised $120 million through a private investment in public equity deal. This funding will facilitate the launch of SovereignAI, a new subsidiary dedicated to commercializing the NEAR Protocol and enhancing AI infrastructure.

According to an announcement made on Tuesday, SovereignAI will adopt a crypto treasury strategy, planning to acquire up to 10% of the NEAR (NEAR) token supply. Collaborating with the NEAR Foundation, this initiative positions OceanPal as a public platform for investment in the native token of the NEAR Protocol.

The partnership is driven by a shared goal of achieving “universal AI sovereignty.” Established in 2020, the NEAR Protocol is a layer-1 blockchain designed to support AI applications, enabling AI agents to interact with, manage assets, and function securely across multiple networks, as detailed on the project’s official website.

Moreover, the announcement aligns with a change in leadership at OceanPal. The company has appointed Sal Ternullo, a former executive at State Street, as co-CEO, while David Schwed, who previously worked with BNY Mellon, Galaxy, and Robinhood, will serve as the chief operating officer.

On the advisory board for SovereignAI, Illia Polosukhin, co-founder and CEO of the NEAR Foundation, will join Richard Muirhead from Fabric Ventures and Lukasz Kaiser from OpenAI, among others.

The Rise of AI Agents in Crypto

AI agents—self-operating systems capable of perceiving, deciding, and acting independently—are increasingly integrated within the cryptocurrency space. These agents use blockchain technology to manage assets, verify transactions, and act as autonomous economic participants.

In September, John D’Agostino, head of institutional strategy at Coinbase, stated on CNBC’s Squawk Box that cryptocurrency is essential for AI agents to function efficiently within financial markets. The same month, Cloudflare, a leading global cloud infrastructure provider, announced its plans to introduce a new stablecoin named NET Dollar to facilitate instant transactions initiated by AI agents.

Recent statistics from Dune Analytics showed that Coinbase's AI-ready payments protocol, which enables autonomous agents to transact with stablecoins online, experienced a staggering surge in activity, growing over 10,000% in just a month. This impressive rise followed comments from two Coinbase developers in August, who predicted that AI agents are set to become “Ethereum’s biggest power users.”

Coinbase, Near Protocol
Sources: Ethereum Foundation
Magazine: You should ‘go and build’ your own AI agent: Jesse Pollak, X Hall of Flame