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<p>Helius CEO <a href="https://x.com/mert" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">@mert</a> has joined the NEAR Foundation Council, the body that oversees the NEAR Protocol foundation and its biggest decisions. He remains at <a href="https://x.com/Helius" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">@Helius</a>, which builds Solana (<a href="https://x.com/search?q=%24SOL&amp;src=cashtag_click" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">$SOL</a>) infrastructure used by Phantom, Jupiter and Coinbase.</p>
<p><cite>The appointment was announced by the NEAR Foundation in a statement shared with The Block on Thursday.</cite><cite>Mumtaz will help guide product strategy, ecosystem growth and governance as NEAR expands its private onchain market vision, and will also judge the upcoming NEAR Hackathon running from Nov. 1 to 14.</cite></p>
<h2 id="who-sits-on-the-near-foundation-council">Who sits on the NEAR Foundation Council</h2>
<p><cite>The Council's members include NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin, Anchorage Digital co-founder Diogo Mónica, former NEAR Foundation COO Chris Donovan and NEAR One founder Bowen Wang.</cite><cite>The Council works as an oversight body, separate from the foundation's executive team.</cite></p>
<p><cite>Helius builds Solana infrastructure used by teams including Phantom, Jupiter, Coinbase and Bitwise, with services covering remote procedure call nodes, data streaming, transaction delivery and validators.</cite></p>
<p>Polosukhin said Mumtaz's <cite>conviction, technical depth and direct approach will be a great asset to the Council as NEAR works to bring private assets and markets to every chain.</cite></p>
<h2 id="why-near-intents-is-the-common-thread">Why NEAR Intents is the common thread</h2>
<p>Mumtaz is an early user of NEAR Intents. <cite>Bankless reports he has called NEAR "the market of markets," a neutral layer connecting chains like Solana, Zcash and AI networks.</cite> Mumtaz's own view is that Solana, Zcash (<a href="https://x.com/search?q=%24ZEC&amp;src=cashtag_click" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">$ZEC</a>) and Bitcoin (<a href="https://x.com/search?q=%24BTC&amp;src=cashtag_click" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">$BTC</a>) cannot win alone, and that <a href="https://x.com/NEARProtocol" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">@NEARProtocol</a> is how they work together.</p>
<p>The appointment comes as NEAR Intents grows. <cite>According to the foundation, NEAR Intents has processed more than $33 billion in all-time volume.</cite> For comparison, <cite>Brave said earlier this year the protocol had executed over 19 million swaps and more than $14 billion in all-time volume across 35 chains.</cite></p>
<p>The protocol's design explains the cross-chain pitch. <cite>Users state the outcome they want, such as "I have Solana and want Zcash," and solvers (market makers or AI agents) compete to execute the trade.</cite><cite>NEAR Intents' bridge documentation lists support for chains including Bitcoin, Solana and Zcash.</cite></p>
<p>The seat gives a leading Solana infrastructure operator a formal role in NEAR governance, which suggests growing overlap between two ecosystems often seen as rivals. <cite>The foundation has said the appointment reflects its emphasis on interoperability, privacy and infrastructure that can connect liquidity across multiple blockchain networks.</cite></p>
<h2 id="sources">Sources</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.theblock.co/news/business/2026-10-15-helius-ceo-mert-mumtaz-joins-near-foundation-council-418656" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">The Block: Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz joins NEAR Foundation Council</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/helius-ceo-mert-mumtaz-joins-the-near-foundation-council-302910016.html" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">PR Newswire: Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz Joins the NEAR Foundation Council</a></p>
<p><a href="https://www.bankless.com/read/news/helius-ceo-mert-mumtaz-joins-near-foundation-council" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow">Bankless: Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz Joins NEAR Foundation Council</a></p>

Solana’s Helius CEO joins the council that runs NEAR Foundation

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