NEAR surged during Asian trading on Sept. 21, with CoinDesk reporting that the token gained about 23% in a single day and climbed above $4. CoinDesk linked the move to NEAR Intents, a cross-chain swap service on the NEAR blockchain that has recently become a main channel for Zcash (ZEC) conversions.
According to CoinGecko data, NEAR was trading at $4.31 as of the afternoon of Sept. 21 in Taipei, up about 24% over the past 24 hours.
ZODL and Vizor route ZEC swaps through NEAR Intents
NEAR Intents lets wallets swap one token directly into an asset on another chain, removing the need for users to bridge funds on their own first. CoinDesk said Zcash wallets including ZODL and Vizor have integrated NEAR Intents to offer ZEC swaps, and daily ZEC volume through the service has grown to six times its previous level over the past week.
On its official documentation page, ZODL says the in-wallet swap function is executed through NEAR Intents, with independent market makers competing to fill orders. Settlement is enforced on-chain by smart contracts, and the received ZEC is deposited directly into a newly created shielded address.
Vizor is a self-custodial Zcash wallet built by the Keplr wallet team. Its website also states that cross-chain swaps are provided by NEAR Intents.
Daily volume on NEAR Intents hit $303 million on Sept. 17
DefiLlama data shows that total daily trading volume across all assets on NEAR Intents ranged from about $90 million to $200 million between Sept. 5 and Sept. 16. It then jumped to about $303 million on Sept. 17, came in at about $228 million on Sept. 18, and fell back to about $119 million on Sept. 20. The seven-day cumulative total was about $1.16 billion.
Those figures cover all assets on the service and do not break out ZEC separately.
ZEC itself was relatively muted over the same period. CoinGecko showed ZEC at about $1,518, up about 4.5% over 24 hours.
Bitcoin held above $81,000 in Asian morning trade
On the broader market, CoinDesk said Bitcoin held above $81,000 during the Asian morning session on Sept. 21, with a 24-hour gain of less than 1%. Earlier, Bitcoin had risen 5.9% in a single day to move above $80,000.
CoinDesk also said the market saw short covering after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission allowed on-chain trading of tokenized U.S. stocks last Thursday. Progress in U.S.-China trade talks also lifted Asian equities and U.S. stock futures.