What are people saying about NEAR?

NEAR Protocol is stirring up conversations, with some excited about its AI potential and others cautious about its short-term price moves. Here’s the latest:

1. AI use cases are growing as more developers build on NEAR
2. $2.80 price level is a key test for traders
3. Long-term price predictions vary widely, from $17 up to $70 by 2030

In-Depth Look

1. @NEARProtocol: NEAR as the AI Economy’s Backbone – Positive Outlook

"NEAR is the execution layer for the AI economy" – Official account (4.2M followers · 12.1K impressions · Sept 1, 2025, 1:03 PM UTC)
See original tweet
What this means: NEAR is positioning itself as the platform that supports AI applications making transactions across different blockchains. This fits with partnerships like IQ AI’s Agent Development Kit, which helps developers create AI-powered tools on NEAR.

2. @EverclearOrg: Surge in NEAR Intents Activity – Mixed Signals

"Can you spot the trend in all-time volume on NEAR Intents?" – 326K swaps worth $88.85M in 30 days (86K followers · 8.4K impressions · July 25, 2025, 5:40 PM UTC)
See original tweet
What this means: The volume of transactions on NEAR Intents has jumped 117% in Q3 2025, showing growing use. However, NEAR’s price is still about 60% below its peak in 2024, indicating that increased usage hasn’t yet pushed the price up.

3. @UniChartz: Risk of Price Falling Below $2.45 – Bearish Warning

"If this zone breaks, more downside is likely" – Technical analysis of an 8-month downtrend (312K followers · 18K impressions · Aug 27, 2025, 7:20 PM UTC)
See original tweet
What this means: NEAR’s price could drop further if it falls below $2.45. Most traders on Binance (72% as of July 2025) are betting on the price going up, but this also means there’s risk of a sharp sell-off if the price breaks this support level (AMBCrypto).

Summary

Opinions on NEAR Protocol are mixed. The technology and AI-related developments look promising, but the price charts show caution. The $2.45 to $2.80 price range is critical: closing above $2.80 on a weekly basis could signal a breakout, while falling below $2.45 might lead to testing the June low near $2.18. The key to watch is how developer activity (with over 280 new contracts deployed daily) aligns with price movements.

What is the latest news about NEAR?

NEAR Protocol is making big strides with ecosystem improvements and AI partnerships, keeping its price steady at $2.71. Here’s a quick look at the latest updates:

1. Protocol Upgrade Lowers Inflation (August 18, 2025) – Annual token inflation cut in half to 2.5%, encouraging more users to stake their tokens.
2. Bitwise Launches NEAR Staking ETP (July 30, 2025) – A $12 billion asset manager offers institutions a new way to earn NEAR staking rewards without holding the tokens directly.
3. IQ AI Partnership for Agent Economy (August 13, 2025) – AI agents can now trade and stake automatically on NEAR, thanks to a new collaboration.

Deep Dive

1. Protocol Upgrade Lowers Inflation (August 18, 2025)

Overview
NEAR’s latest software update (v3.2) cut the yearly token creation rate from 5% down to 2.5%. This helps reduce the number of new tokens entering the market, which can protect the token’s value. The update also improved tools that let NEAR work better with other blockchains and made it easier for developers to build apps. These changes helped NEAR reach 16 million weekly active users, surpassing Solana.

What this means
Lower inflation means less pressure to sell tokens, which is good for NEAR’s long-term value. Better developer tools attract more projects to build on NEAR. However, since the price has already risen 312% this year, some of this optimism is already reflected in the market. If user growth slows, the price could become more volatile. (Bitget)

2. Bitwise Launches NEAR Staking ETP (July 30, 2025)

Overview
Bitwise, a major asset manager with $12 billion under management, introduced a new Exchange Traded Product (ETP) that lets institutions earn NEAR staking rewards (about 5.8% annually) without needing to hold the tokens themselves. This follows NEAR’s integration of stablecoins on BitGo’s platform, which serves institutional investors.

What this means
This is generally positive for NEAR because it shows growing interest from big investors. However, the amount of money invested in this ETP hasn’t been disclosed yet, so its real impact is still unclear. NEAR’s staking rewards are moderate compared to competitors like Cosmos (ATOM) at 12.4% and Solana (SOL) at 6%, so yield alone isn’t the main attraction. (NEAR Protocol)

3. IQ AI Partnership for Agent Economy (August 13, 2025)

Overview
NEAR Foundation bought IQ tokens to support AI agents built with IQ’s technology. These AI agents can now trade, stake, and manage assets across different blockchains automatically using NEAR’s Chain Signatures feature.

What this means
This partnership strengthens NEAR’s role in the growing AI crypto space, which is valued at $26.4 billion. By enabling AI agents to operate independently on its network, NEAR could become a key platform for this new type of decentralized application. However, adoption depends on developers building more AI-powered apps—currently, there are just over 100 verified AI agents. (IQ AI)

Conclusion

NEAR’s recent updates—from lowering inflation to investing in AI infrastructure—show a clear focus on sustainable growth and leading in AI-driven economies. While technical support is strong around $2.50, the big question is whether NEAR can turn its 16 million users into steady revenue as AI agents become mainstream.

Why did the price of NEAR go up?

NEAR Protocol (NEAR) increased by 1.33% in the last 24 hours, building on a strong weekly gain of 14.68%. Here’s why:

1. Network Upgrade Reduces Inflation – Inflation was cut from 5% to 2.5%, lowering the number of new tokens and easing selling pressure.
2. Growing AI and DeFi Partnerships – Collaborations with Aptos and Shelby are expanding NEAR’s real-world uses.
3. Strong Technical Signals – The price is holding above important support levels, suggesting potential for more gains.

Deep Dive

1. Network Upgrade Momentum (Positive Impact)

On August 18, NEAR implemented a major upgrade that cut its annual token inflation rate from 5% to 2.5%. This means fewer new tokens are created each year—about 62 million fewer—which helps reduce the pressure on the market from people selling new tokens.

Why it matters: Lower inflation makes NEAR tokens more scarce, which can increase their value over time. At the same time, staking rewards remain attractive (currently about 5.8% annual yield on Bitvavo), encouraging holders to keep their tokens locked in the network. This approach is similar to Bitcoin’s deflationary model and is especially important during times when alternative cryptocurrencies (altcoins) are gaining attention.

2. AI and DeFi Ecosystem Growth (Positive Impact)

On September 3, NEAR boosted its AI capabilities by integrating with Aptos, enabling smooth cross-chain transactions, and partnering with Shelby to provide decentralized storage for AI tasks. These developments follow a milestone in July when NEAR Intents—a platform for decentralized transactions—reached $570 million in volume.

What this means:

• The Aptos partnership allows users to swap tokens easily across different blockchains, with over 1.2 million transactions since July.
• Shelby’s integration supports real-time AI data processing, which is key to NEAR’s vision of an “agentic economy” where AI agents operate autonomously.
  Projects like Shade Agent Sandbox, which offers verifiable AI agents, are attracting more developers and users, with weekly active users increasing by 18.4% year-over-year to 16 million.

3. Technical Strength (Mixed Signals)

NEAR’s price is currently holding above the 61.8% Fibonacci retracement level at $2.58, measured from its recent high of $3.06 in August. The Relative Strength Index (RSI) is at 59.48, indicating there’s room for the price to rise before it becomes overbought.

What this means:

• Positive signs include the price staying above the 50-day Simple Moving Average (SMA) at $2.56, which suggests investors are accumulating NEAR.
• However, the MACD histogram shows momentum is slowing, and if the price falls below $2.67 (the 23.6% Fibonacci level), some traders might take profits, causing a short-term pullback.

Conclusion

NEAR’s recent gains are driven by a combination of lower inflation, expanding AI and DeFi partnerships, and solid technical support. While there may be some short-term cooling off, NEAR’s focus on cross-chain AI infrastructure positions it well for continued growth.

Key point to watch: Will NEAR Intents’ transaction volume surpass $1 billion by the end of September? Achieving this would be a strong sign of mainstream adoption.

What could affect the price of NEAR?

NEAR’s price outlook depends on how well it integrates AI technology, changes in its token supply rules, and shifts in the broader crypto market.

1. Growing AI Ecosystem – Over $570 million in cross-chain swaps through NEAR Intents (NEAR Protocol)
2. Inflation Reduction Proposal – Plan to cut annual token issuance by half to 2.5% by late 2025 (CoinMarketCap)
3. Altcoin Market Momentum – Crypto altcoins surged 127% in one month, benefiting NEAR’s high-risk, high-reward profile (CMC Data)

Deep Dive

1. AI Infrastructure Expansion (Positive Outlook)

What’s happening: NEAR’s “Intents” protocol has handled more than $570 million in cross-chain swaps involving over 100 different assets. It now supports chains like Sui (which holds $2 billion in assets) and Aptos, allowing users to move assets without complicated bridges. NEAR’s Shade Agent Sandbox lets AI programs perform tasks directly on the blockchain. Experts predict the AI crypto market could reach $26.4 billion by 2025.

Why it matters: If NEAR leads in combining AI and blockchain, it could attract more developers and big investors, similar to what happened with Bittensor in 2025. However, there are risks since only about 22,000 users actively use Intents each month (NEAR Protocol).

2. Tokenomics Changes (Mixed Effects)

What’s happening: Validators (those who help secure the network) are voting on a proposal to cut NEAR’s yearly inflation rate from about 5% to 2.5%. This means fewer new tokens will be created, reducing supply growth by half. If approved by the third quarter of 2025, staking rewards would drop to around 4.5%. This might encourage people to hold tokens longer but could also discourage validators from participating.

Why it matters: Lower inflation could reduce selling pressure and potentially raise NEAR’s price, similar to Ethereum’s past upgrade (EIP-1559). On the flip side, smaller staking rewards might push users to other decentralized finance (DeFi) platforms on NEAR, like Rhea Finance, which currently manages $260 million in assets.

3. Altcoin Market Trends (Mixed Signals)

What’s happening: Over the past 90 days, NEAR’s price increased by 24%, outperforming Bitcoin’s 2.7% gain. The Altcoin Season Index, which tracks altcoin performance, jumped 127% in one month. However, NEAR’s 14-day Relative Strength Index (RSI) is at 74, indicating it might be overbought. There’s also resistance around the $3.06 price level.

Why it matters: If NEAR’s price breaks above $2.88, it could gain momentum toward $3.50. But if it fails, a pullback to $2.45 is possible. NEAR’s price moves are closely linked to other altcoins like SOL and AVAX, so broader market shifts will have a big impact.

Conclusion

NEAR’s progress in AI and plans to reduce token inflation offer strong potential upside. However, watch for technical price resistance and how changes affect validators’ incentives. Also, keep an eye on whether NEAR’s 16 million weekly active users can keep growing compared to Solana’s 14.8 million. Key levels to watch are the $2.88 resistance and the outcome of the inflation vote expected in September.

What is expected in the development of NEAR?

NEAR Protocol’s roadmap highlights three main areas: integrating AI, improving scalability through sharding, and enhancing cross-chain capabilities.

1. Dynamic Sharding Upgrade (Q4 2025) – Completing Phase 3 to automatically adjust the number of shards based on network demand.
2. NEAR Intents Expansion (Ongoing) – Growing cross-chain swaps and agent-driven commerce.
3. AI Agent Mainnet Launch (2026) – Launching verifiable AI agents that operate directly on NEAR’s blockchain.

Deep Dive

1. Dynamic Sharding Upgrade (Q4 2025)

Overview:
NEAR is set to complete Phase 3 of its sharding plan, which will allow the network to automatically increase or decrease the number of shards (smaller parts of the blockchain) depending on how much activity there is. This builds on a 2024 update that made it easier for validators (network participants who confirm transactions) by lowering hardware needs.

What this means:
This upgrade is promising because it could make NEAR one of the most flexible Layer 1 blockchains, potentially processing millions of transactions per second. However, the technical challenges and coordination among validators during this change are risks to watch.

2. NEAR Intents Expansion (Ongoing)

Overview:
NEAR Intents is a system that supports transactions across different blockchains. It recently surpassed $570 million in swap volume and connected with Sui, a blockchain holding $2 billion in total value locked (TVL). Future plans include supporting over 200 assets and expanding into NFT marketplaces like HOT Craft and decentralized exchanges such as SurgeSwap.

What this means:
This development is cautiously optimistic. Expanding cross-chain functionality could bring more users and liquidity to NEAR, but it faces competition from other projects like Polkadot and Cosmos. Success depends on how well developers adopt NEAR’s “chain-agnostic” tools.

3. AI Agent Mainnet Launch (2026)

Overview:
NEAR introduced the Shade Agent Sandbox in July 2025, a testing environment for AI agents. The upcoming mainnet launch will allow these AI agents to perform tasks on the blockchain independently, benefiting from NEAR’s fast transaction finality and compatibility with Ethereum wallets.

What this means:
This is a positive step, aligning with NEAR’s goal to become the “execution layer for the AI economy.” Still, widespread adoption will depend on demonstrating practical uses beyond specialized decentralized finance (DeFi) applications.

Conclusion

NEAR’s roadmap focuses on three key areas: scalability through dynamic sharding, interoperability via NEAR Intents, and innovation with AI agents. These efforts support its current price of $2.72, which has grown 14% in the past week. While technical challenges remain, NEAR’s developer-friendly approach and partnerships, like Bitwise’s staking ETP, strengthen its long-term outlook. The big question is whether NEAR’s AI-focused strategy will help it outpace other Layer 1 blockchains in attracting the next generation of decentralized applications.

What updates are there in the NEAR code base?

NEAR Protocol's recent updates focus on boosting scalability and improving cross-chain capabilities.

1. Resharding V3 & Protocol Upgrades (March 2025) – Increased the number of shards and improved how transactions are handled across them.
2. Nightshade 2.0 Upgrade (May 2025) – Made the network four times faster by optimizing how it processes transactions.
3. Hard Fork Preparation (August 2025) – Required all network nodes to update software to support important changes.

In-Depth Look

1. Resharding V3 & Protocol Upgrades (March 2025)

What happened: NEAR increased its shard count from 6 to 8, which helps the network handle more transactions at once. They also introduced a new system to better manage transactions that involve multiple shards. This upgrade improved how quickly transactions are processed and made syncing the network state faster.

Why it matters: These changes make NEAR more scalable, meaning decentralized apps (dApps) can run smoother and handle more users. It also supports more complex interactions across different parts of the network, improving overall user experience.
(Source)

2. Nightshade 2.0 Upgrade (May 2025)

What happened: This upgrade made NEAR’s network about four times faster, reaching around 10,000 transactions per second. It also introduced "stateless validation," which lets validators help secure the network without needing to store the entire blockchain history.

Why it matters: By lowering the technical requirements for validators, more people can participate in running the network. This helps NEAR grow stronger and supports advanced applications like AI tools and apps that need to process many transactions quickly.
(Source)

3. Hard Fork Preparation (August 2025)

What happened: To implement important updates, NEAR required all node operators to upgrade their software by mid-August. Some exchanges, like Tokocrypto, temporarily paused deposits and withdrawals during this time.

Why it matters: While necessary for long-term improvements, hard forks can cause short-term disruptions. It’s important to watch how smoothly the network and exchanges recover after the upgrade.
(Source)

Conclusion

NEAR Protocol’s recent upgrades focus on making the network faster, easier to maintain, and better at handling transactions across different parts of the system. These improvements set the stage for NEAR to support more complex and high-demand applications, including those driven by AI. The big question now is how these changes will influence NEAR’s growth in decentralized finance (DeFi) and adoption by larger institutions in late 2025.