A picture of Nvidia’s CEO touching the arm of Near Protocol’s co-founder has sparked a series of comments from community members.
The crypto industry has grown into a space where things like images, comments, and predictions serve as a basis for potential engagement with a project. Near Protocol recently shared a picture of two prominent individuals, suggesting a potential partnership in the future. While this action sparked a mild price increase for Near Protocol’s native coin (NEAR), it sparked a series of backlash from community members.
What Happened?
Between March 18th and 21st, the tech giant Nvidia hosted a conference centred on artificial intelligence (AI). Attendees include developers, researchers, inventors, and other industry leaders. Illia Polosukhin, the co-founder of the layer-1 blockchain Near Protocol, also attended the event. For context, he has a background in deep learning and machine learning.
On one of the days, Polosukhin gave a speech regarding his insights on blockchain’s integration with AI. He was joined on stage by Nvidia co-founder and CEO Jensen Huang, alongside the co-authors of a book titled “Attention is All You Need.” During the speech, Huang placed his hand on Polosukhin’s arm as seen in the image below.
Near Protocol published an X post earlier today, urging users to read its coverage of the just-concluded conference and “learn about that touch.” Interestingly, NEAR saw a sizeable price increase shortly after the tweet was published to a trading price of $8.072. The coin has now consolidated at a current price of $7.755, representing a 4.3% uptick.
Many Users Are Unimpressed
Near Protocol’s tweet seemed weird to several users. Many argued that “a touch on the arm” is no news. One user jokingly said that more crypto founders need to get touched by “important people.”
A few users considered the tweet so embarrassing that they were ready to sell off their NEAR tokens. Some say that the tweet was definitely from an intern.
