Anyone who made the trip to Lisbon for NEARCON 2022, or tuned in via the YouTube livestream or Twitter, knew NEARCON was a smashing success. The vibe was something to behold. From devs and builders to other visionaries and champions of NEAR, NEARCON showcased the ecosystem and community at its very best—with boundless energy for creating without limits. 

This is an energy that was also palpable to the press. Everything came together to produce  awe-inspiring momentum that is being sustained well beyond NEARCON’s aftermath.

Let’s take a look at NEAR by the numbers in the wake of NEARCON to see just how the NEAR community is building without limits. 

20M Accounts and 200M Transactions 

Coming out of NEARCON, the total amount of NEAR accounts hit a new high of 20 million. To be sure, this was an ecosystem and community effort. But Sweat Economy, who presented at NEARCON, is responsible for onboarding 14 million new users into the NEAR ecosystem with their move-to-earn app. That’s 20x growth since this time last year! 

Thanks to NEAR’s Nightshade sharding—Phase 1 of which was announced at NEARCON—this onboarding of the masses unfolded without a hitch. This example of NEAR’s infinite capacity is proof that it can welcome millions more users across the 800+ apps running on the protocol.
Earlier this month, NEAR also hit a new milestone of 200 million on-chain transactions. Next up? 250 million. The ecosystem is growing by leaps and bounds, and doing so in a crypto winter. 

21 Global Media Partners

NEARCON was a major hit this year with members of the international press.  All told, the conference attracted 21 global media partners, with CoinDesk leading the pack as NEAR’s top tier sponsor.  

Other major media outlets joined NEAR from around the world, including Cointelegraph, the Defiant, Coinpost Japan, W3volution Spain, and Business Insider Africa. 

Over 250 Pieces of Media Coverage

Naturally, with so many global media partners, there is quite a lot of great news to share. Seven NEAR announcements and five partnership stories were pushed out to the global media.  All together these ecosystem stories attracted 256+ pieces of coverage including a fantastic show roundup video by CryptoBanter, a hugely influential crypto YouTube channel that has over half a million subscribers. 

While US media outlets led with most of the NEARCON coverage, NEAR’s flagship conference also saw consistent reporting from media in India, Korea, Vietnam and beyond. 

Media Coverage Breakdown by Country

Africa – 5 pieces of coverageBrazil – 5 pieces of coverageChina – 5 pieces of coverageFrench – 8 pieces of coverageGerman – 2 pieces of coverageItaly – 4 pieces of coverageIndia – 18 pieces of coverageJapan – 2 pieces of coverageKorea – 11 pieces of coverageSpain – 5 pieces of coverage UK – 12 pieces of coverageUS – 25 pieces of coverageVietnam – 5 pieces of coverageGlobal – 150+pieces of coverage

$100M Entertainment Fund

Perhaps the biggest story to come out of NEARCON was the launch of NEAR’s $100 million entertainment fund. It captivated the press, appearing in coverage from international news outlets such as CoinDesk, International Business Times, Journal Du Coin France, China’s leading crypto title Panony , CoinPost Japan and Coin Press Korea.

And rightly so. By partnering with Caerus for this new $100 VC Fund and Lab, NEAR will help push new Web3 innovation in culture, media, and entertainment. This fund now places NEAR at the forefront of changing how creative projects are financed, produced, and distributed, as well as how it’s consumed, owned, and monetized. 

11 Visionary ‘Women of Web3 Changemakers’

Another big campaign launched at NEARCON—the Women of Web3 Changemakers. A partnership with Forkast News, thisinitiative celebrated 11 exceptional women shaping the future of Web3. 

The campaign attracted a great deal of interest from a global audience, with mentions in CoinDesk, Fintech Finance, and Yahoo Finance.  

NEAR Digital Collective (NDC) and Phase 1 Sharding announcements

NEAR Co-founder Illia Polosukhin gave an exclusive interview with CoinDesk about the NEAR Digital Collective (NDC). This interview was syndicated in various media outlets across Africa, Brazil, and China.  

CoinDesk also covered NEAR’s Phase 1 Sharding news, which made significant waves in the developer community as well as international headlines. Meanwhile, Pagoda announced their Pagoda Console—a ‘one stop’ tool shop that gives devs all the kit they need to build Web3 apps. 

NEAR hubs launch in India and Vietnam

NEARCON also witnessed the launch of two major regional hubs—Vietnam and India.  NEAR Foundation worked closely with the Vietnamese press to amplify the story locally, and with great success. Vietnam’s major tech titles covered the announcement, including Zing news.

NEAR Foundation replicated this approach with India’s media outlets, garnering coverage in major titles such as YourStory, the local equivalent of TechCrunch. Interviews were also secured with Reuters, Bloomberg and Times of India. 

Other stories from the NEAR ecosystem

NEAR Foundation pushed out announcements on Tether (USDT) going live on NEAR, Sender Wallet’s $3.5 million funding round, and Few and Far’s ambition to grow the NEAR NFT ecosystem. There were also announcements for NEAR’s partnership with Fireblocks, which will bring innovative crypto technologies to new global institutional investors, and SWEAT Economy’s tokenomics. 

As with many of the other stories and announcements from NEARCON, these stories had mass global appeal. Coverage could be found in The Block, Cointelegraph,  Forbes India, and  CryptoTVPlus Africa.

The sheer amount of positive press comes at a critical time for NEAR. The entire ecosystem and the wider Web3 world are building through a crypto winter but also battling other macroeconomic forces, post-Covid trauma, and climate change. It’s a time for resilience and creativity in how the NEAR and Web3 communities rethink and refashion the internet, and more importantly, the world. 

NEARCON demonstrated to the people across the globe that the protocol, ecosystem, and community will not be deterred. Builders and investors are still flocking to NEAR to build the next generation of decentralized apps. 

This is what creating without limits looks like. And it’s just the beginning!

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