NEAR Protocol has been on a remarkable run. The latest leg higher began last Wednesday, when the token surged 12%, but its broader rally started several days earlier. NEAR had already joined the broader crypto market’s August surge, gaining more than 15% during the session.
September has been particularly strong for the asset. NEAR is up almost 144% over the past 30 days at the time of writing, with most of those gains coming during the last seven days. It was also the top gainer among the top 100 cryptocurrencies during this period.
However, to understand what could happen in the coming days, it is important to examine what triggered the latest uptrend.
Several existing NEAR initiatives have recently attracted renewed attention after reaching important milestones. One of the most notable is the protocol’s privacy infrastructure. Confidential Intents was introduced earlier this year and became available in July.
Interestingly, the privacy feature is built on NEAR Intents, which went live in 2024. While these technologies are not entirely new, they have recently gained greater attention after reaching significant milestones. For example, Confidential TVL crossed $70 million last week, while NEAR also expanded the technology’s use case to perpetual trading.
Adding to the list of recent developments, NEAR spot trading launched on Hyperliquid. The project also partnered with Ondo to bring tokenized U.S. stocks and ETFs to its trading platform.
With NEAR’s massive gains over the past two weeks, however, uncertainty is growing over what comes next.
Is the Uptrend Ending Soon?
Interestingly, this is not the first time NEAR has experienced such a strong uptrend this year.
In March, the artificial intelligence narrative attracted significant attention across the crypto market, and NEAR was among the assets benefiting from the trend. The token recorded a strong inflow of capital that sustained its rally for roughly three weeks.
The project also continued expanding its AI infrastructure during that period, including the addition of a new user interface for its Market.near.ai website. An IronClaw Reddit AMA scheduled for March 5 also coincided with an 18% surge in NEAR’s price.
Technical analysis at the time provided another reason for optimism. One analysis identified a cup-and-handle pattern and projected further upside. NEAR subsequently gained more than the expected 30%.
Looking back, the fundamental catalysts helped sustain that rally for approximately three weeks. This provides an interesting comparison with the current move.
NEAR is now in the second week of its latest sustained uptrend. Based on the previous rally, there is a possibility that the current move could extend into the coming week, particularly as new fundamental catalysts continue to emerge.
One of the most notable developments involves Bitwise. Its NEAR staking ETP recently surpassed $100 million in assets under management, while the firm is also advancing a proposed U.S. ETF tied to the asset. The latest filings indicate that the product has cleared an important regulatory hurdle and is moving toward a potential NYSE Arca listing under the ticker $NRR.
Bitwise’s growing interest in NEAR is not solely a reaction to the token’s recent rally. The firm has also published a long-term outlook for the asset.
The Bitwise NEAR Prediction
Bitwise recently published its 2030 valuation scenarios for NEAR, placing its base case at $155 and its bull case at $562.
The firm’s thesis is that NEAR could eventually transform from a Layer-1 blockchain into a unified infrastructure layer for the global AI-agent economy and cross-chain transactions. Bitwise believes this transformation could become a major driver of NEAR’s long-term value.
The company also outlined its broader vision for the future of AI-powered commerce. It expects billions of autonomous AI agents to eventually interact, make payments and coordinate with one another to address some of the slow and costly limitations of traditional payment systems.
Another part of Bitwise’s thesis involves NEAR’s fee mechanism. The report points to the protocol’s mechanism for permanently burning 70% of fees generated by Intents as a potential source of additional demand pressure over time.
After the 39-page report was published on Friday, NEAR surged almost 8%. Interestingly, the report was released around the same time as the latest ETF filing, creating another potential catalyst for the asset.
If the ETF progresses toward trading, its eventual launch could provide another source of attention and demand. However, the timing remains important.
Overall, the fundamental backdrop gives NEAR a case for extending its rally into the coming week. However, the technical picture suggests that the upside may be becoming increasingly limited.
NEAR Slows Down
On the weekly timeframe, NEAR is up more than 24% at the time of writing. That follows a gain of more than 81% last week, suggesting that upward momentum may be starting to slow after almost two weeks of sustained buying.
Although the fundamentals and previous price action provide reasons to expect further gains, the next move may not be as significant as the rally seen over the past 14 days.
The weekly chart also suggests that the risk of a deeper correction is increasing.
The Relative Strength Index is currently around 80, placing NEAR firmly in overbought territory. Interestingly, this is the first time the indicator has reached this level during the current rally. However, NEAR has entered overbought territory before, and those periods were followed by notable corrections.
History offers some reason for caution. In March, NEAR’s RSI moved above 70 before the token eventually retraced almost 50%. On other occasions, the RSI approached the overbought zone before NEAR lost more than 30% the following week.
If a similar pattern repeats, NEAR could face a correction of roughly 30% in the coming week.
The timing of the proposed ETF could also influence the next major move. Depending on when the product begins trading, the catalyst could either extend the rally or arrive after the market has already priced in much of the optimism.
On the brighter side, NEAR has successfully flipped the $5 level. The next major resistance sits around $6, meaning the token could still push toward that level if buying pressure remains strong.
