NEAR Protocol's token climbed 15% over the past 24 hours to $2.8, extending a month-long rally that has seen the price double. The surge is largely attributed to the breakout performance of NEAR Intents, the network's cross-chain transaction system.
Data from DefiLlama shows that NEAR Intents has processed over $19 billion in cumulative volume and generated roughly $32 million in fees. The system lets users specify a desired outcome — such as swapping USDC on Ethereum for SOL on Solana — while third-party solvers execute the trade behind the scenes. After months of subdued price action, these figures have revived market attention on NEAR.
The rally accelerated after BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes described NEAR, alongside Hyperliquid's HYPE and ZEC, as crypto's 'holy trinity' on social media, adding that there is a 'long way to go' in its ascent.
Institutional interest is also rising. The Bitwise NEAR Staking ETP, listed in Europe, has grown to roughly $40 million in assets under management after seeing $7 million of inflows in a single week. Earlier this month, traders rotated back into AI and blockchain infrastructure tokens, lifting NEAR by about 30%.
June Dynamic Sharding Upgrade in Focus
Investors are eyeing an upcoming mainnet upgrade scheduled for June, which will introduce dynamic resharding. The mechanism automatically splits network shards as demand increases, potentially improving scalability during peak usage. NEAR is a layer-1 blockchain built for applications, AI infrastructure, and cross-chain transactions, using proof-of-stake consensus and sharding to handle high throughput.
Despite the sharp rally, NEAR's current price remains well below its 2022 peak near $20.