Inside Rug Radio’s Whirlwind Tour of Dubai

It’s been an eventful month for Decrypt’s sister media outlet Rug Radio, as it descended on Dubai for Token2049 for a series of events and showcase interviews.

“There was one of the days where we partnered with three events, and all three events were the same night,” Rug Radio Founder and President Farokh Sarmad revealed on the FOMO Hour podcast. “I was so dead.”

Sarmad’s persistence throughout Token2049 paid off, though—he scored a one-on-one interview with former Binance CEO Changpeng Zhao that made headlines, as the crypto exchange founder recounted his experience in prison.

But the main event was altogether more upbeat, as Rug Radio joined Decrypt, parent company DASTAN and co-host Infinex for the exclusive R HAUS night at Dubai’s iconic Aura Skypool, at the heart of the Palm Jumeirah.

The event played host to headline sponsors Near and Auros, along with MOG, Uniqly, Bing Bong, Market Across, Magic Eden and TakeOver.

Infinex showcased its new Infinex Connect UX platform, which enables Infinex users to connect their account to third-party dapps and use Infinex features and their cross-chain portfolio within the dapp.

“We’re going to give you an SDK where you can build a new kind of crypto app that feels like a centralized exchange,” Infinex founder Kain Warwick told Sarmad at the event.

Near Protocol co-founder Illia Polosukhin joined Sarmad to discuss the chain abstraction stack’s vision for an AI-powered future. “AI is going to be effectively the way we interface with computing,” he said. “There are going to be no more apps, there are going to be no more websites.”

AI assistants will run in the background, anticipating user needs, Polosukhin said. He pointed to the example of move-to-earn game Sweat, built atop Near, which recently launched an in-wallet AI agent, Mia.

“Mia is an assistant that is directly in your crypto wallet, that knows everything about your crypto wallet, and your interactions and your physical fitness,” he said. “Now you can have conversations about crypto, physical fitness, you can initiate transactions. So we see that future is really quickly evolving.”

BitGPT founding member Lia Müller Peña touted the platform’s newly launched payment protocol for AI agents. “We’re one step closer to having agent commerce be the new staple, and really a way to mass adopt crypto and decentralized tech outside of Web3,” she said.

An “unreal” experience

While R HAUS attendees prepared to lay the groundwork for the Web3 and AI revolution, there was plenty of time for R&R at the event. And where last year’s Token2049 was marred by torrential rains, this year’s guests had a far sunnier time of it.

Gathered around the world’s highest 360° infinity pool, suspended 200 meters in the air, they took in “amazing” views of the Dubai skyline, had “incredible conversation,” danced the night away with a giant Pudgy Penguin and enjoyed the “unreal” vibes.

The show-stopping setting made it an evening to remember, with attendees calling the event, “straight up fire” and “one of the most magnificent evenings.” Meme coin MOG and Uniquly.io showed off their NFC-equipped t-shirts, with some lucky owners receiving a MOG airdrop, while

It was, as Rug Radio put it, “absolute cinema.”