# Helius CEO Mert Mumtaz Joins NEAR Foundation Council

*Author: Bankless*
*Published: Oct 15, 2026*
*Source: https://www.bankless.com/read/news/helius-ceo-mert-mumtaz-joins-near-foundation-council*

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## What's the Scoop?

- **New Council Member:** Mert Mumtaz, CEO and co-founder of Helius, has joined the [NEAR Foundation Council](https://www.theblock.co/news/business/2026-10-15-helius-ceo-mert-mumtaz-joins-near-foundation-council-418656) and will sit alongside NEAR co-founder Illia Polosukhin and Anchorage Digital co-founder Diogo Mónica. 

- **His Role:** Mumtaz will help guide NEAR's product strategy, ecosystem growth, and governance as the network expands into private onchain markets. He'll also judge NEAR's November 1–14 hackathon. 

- **Cross-Chain Ties:** Though he runs [Helius](https://www.helius.dev/about), a major Solana infrastructure company, Mumtaz has been a vocal NEAR fan, [calling it](https://x.com/mert/status/2101227605391274302) "the market of markets," a neutral layer connecting chains like Solana, Zcash, and AI networks: "If Solana is one continent… then NEAR is the silk road." 

- **NEAR's Momentum:** [NEAR Intents](https://intents.near.org/), which lets users swap across blockchains without managing bridges, has processed over $33B in all-time volume. It also [lost about $3.8M](https://x.com/near_intents/status/2105642219357241796) to a deposit-system bug on Oct 1, which the team patched, and it says it will fully repay users. 

- **Quantum and AI Fears:** The day before, Mumtaz and Polosukhin joined [threadguy's roundtable](https://x.com/notthreadguy/status/2110502700999942172) on whether AI or quantum computers could break crypto. The takeaway was that coins are safe for now, and smart contract hacks are the bigger near-term risk. Mumtaz [said](https://x.com/TrySocialFun/status/2110397107181887796) most chains could upgrade if they had to, and that Zcash was "the best prepared."
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*This article is brought to you by [NEAR](https://www.bankless.com/sponsor/near-1785257427?ref=read/news/helius-ceo-mert-mumtaz-joins-near-foundation-council)*