Marieke Flament, the CEO of Near Foundation, the organization behind the Layer-1 protocol called Near, has stepped down from her position. The announcement, made on September 21, revealed that Chris Donovan, the general counsel of Near Foundation, will assume the role of CEO following Flament's departure. Flament did not provide a specific reason for her resignation.
Flament reflected on her time as CEO, mentioning that she had not been familiar with Near two years ago. However, after researching and engaging in discussions, she recognized the tremendous potential of Near, citing its strong technology, diverse community, and open possibilities as driving factors for her initial involvement.
Under her leadership, Flament noted significant growth in Near Protocol's user base and online presence. Between 2021 and 2023, the number of daily active users on Near Protocol surged from 50,000 to 3 million, while its Twitter followers swelled from 200,000 to over 2 million. Additionally, Near secured partnerships with various entities, including well-known names such as SWEAT, Playember, Circle, Ledger, Alibaba, Amazon, Google, KPMG, Cosmose AI, SailGP, The Littles, PipeFlare, Shemaroo, Kakao Games, Inven/Vortex , and Netmarble/Marblex.
Flament also disclosed that the NEAR Foundation's current treasury balance stands at 330 million NEAR tokens, estimated to be valued at approximately $350 million. In summarizing her strategic approach during her tenure, Flament emphasized her commitment to driving mainstream adoption, supporting grassroots communities, and advancing decentralization. She stressed the importance of engaging with major web2 players while nurturing innovation within the web3 ecosystem as a key growth strategy.
As of now, NEAR ranks as the 40th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, with a valuation of $1.04 billion. In June, Czech automotive group Skoda Auto introduced a non-fungible token platform based on the Near protocol.
