OceanPal Inc. , today announced the closing of a $120M private investment in public equity transaction for the purchase and sale of common stock and/or pre-funded warrants to purchase shares of common stock (the “Offering”). The Company intends to use the net proceeds of the transaction to implement a digital asset treasury strategy through its new wholly owned subsidiary, SovereignAI Services LLC (“SovereignAI”), focused on commercializing the NEAR Protocol, a blockchain platform architected for Artificial Intelligence (“AI”) use cases. As a result of this transaction, OP, through SovereignAI, is expected to serve as the leading public investment vehicle to gain exposure to NEAR, the NEAR Protocol’s native token, and the foundational AI infrastructure needed to enable agentic commerce.
The NEAR Protocol’s focus on agentic AI & chain abstraction aligns with increasing institutional interest in automation, compliance, and scalable AI infrastructure, proven by continued support from leading TradFi and crypto-native funds. NEAR’s AI-centric tech stack allows AI agents to function as independent economic actors, allowing them to transact, manage assets, and make automated decisions, all while maintaining data privacy, governance, and economic rights of their end users.
SovereignAI intends to monetize its infrastructure business by accumulating NEAR with the objective of acquiring at least 10% of the NEAR token supply over time. SovereignAI represents an evolution in the treasury company landscape, moving beyond passive accumulation models to focus on the successful execution against operating and infrastructure businesses, leveraging the yield from its balance sheet to build an innovative unique blockchain-native, confidential AI infrastructure.
"We believe NEAR presents the greatest asymmetric upside across mature projects in the digital asset market, which we aim to capture and offer to our shareholders,” said OceanPal’s newly appointed Co-CEO, Sal Ternullo. “This is a public company launching as an active, strategic partner with the NEAR Foundation to advance a shared vision of universal AI sovereignty by leveraging the NEAR Protocol’s vertically integrated AI products and rails, which were purpose-built for these exact use cases. We plan to use this decentralized, confidential compute infrastructure to capitalize on the explosive demand for privacy-first, regulatory compliant AI across enterprise markets including finance, healthcare, and media while enabling businesses and consumers to maintain control and ownership."
Mr. Ternullo brings deep expertise in early-stage investing, asset management, and working with frontier technologies at firms like State Street, KPMG, most recently serving as General Partner at A100x. The OP executive team also includes newly appointed Chief Operating Officer (“COO”), David Schwed, who brings extensive experience in information security and privacy in both traditional financial institutions and crypto-native contexts, working at firms including BNY and Galaxy, while most recently serving as the Chief Information Security Officer for Brokerage & Money at Robinhood.
“SovereignAI is positioned at the convergence of two massive transformations - AI and digital ownership,” said Mr. Schwed. “Our strategy goes beyond treasury management to actively build the infrastructure enabling user-owned, privacy-preserving AI at scale. NEAR Protocol’s architecture provides the trust, security, and economic alignment necessary to realize true AI sovereignty and unlock the next generation of autonomous agent commerce.”
The strategy is supported by NEAR Protocol ecosystem-aligned strategic advisors, leading investors, and operating partners. The NEAR Foundation and the following key individuals will not only contribute capital to the transaction but will also support the strategy on a go-forward basis.
OP has constructed a world class Advisory Board for SovereignAI chaired by Illia Polosukhin, CEO & co-founder NEAR Foundation, alongside, Richard Muirhead (founder, Fabric Ventures & NEAR Foundation Council member since inception), Lukasz Kaiser (OpenAI), Philippe Sachs (Nscale), Andy Brown (Sandhill East), and Jackie Kennedy (Quicknode) providing direct access to AI experts, hyperscalers and infrastructure companies to deliver on its mission.
“We are very pleased to welcome SovereignAI to the NEAR ecosystem,” said Mr. Polosukhin, CEO & co-founder NEAR Foundation. “I look forward to working with them to realize a shared vision of achieving true universal AI sovereignty by enabling private, user-owned AI and autonomous agent commerce. We believe the NEAR Protocol’s AI-centric tech stack will allow user-owned AI to meet its moment.”
The transaction involved several strategic participants, including crypto-native investors such as Kraken, Proximity, Fabric Ventures, G20 Group – among others. Clear Street LLC and Cohen & Company Capital Markets, a division of Cohen & Company Securities, LLC (“CCM”), served as financial advisors and placement agents to SovereignAI. Sealion Capital LLC served as advisor to OceanPal Inc.
Reed Smith LLP served as legal advisor to NEAR Foundation and will represent SovereignAI following the closing of the Offering. Paul Hastings LLP served as legal advisor to Clear Street LLC and CCM, and Seward & Kissel LLP acted as legal advisors to OceanPal Inc.
Following the transaction, OP will continue to operate as a global provider of shipping transportation services, specializing in the ownership and operation of dry bulk vessels and product tankers. OP expects to continue its seaborne transportation of bulk commodities as well as refined petroleum products.
