NEAR price rally gains momentum as cross-chain product activity fuels further 15% jump

NEAR Protocol’s token climbed 15% over the past 24 hours to $2.8, extending a month-long rally that has seen the price of NEAR double in the past month.

The move comes amid the success surrounding NEAR Intents, the network’s cross-chain transaction system. The product allows users to request a desired outcome, such as swapping USDC on Ethereum for SOL on Solana, while third-party solvers execute the transaction behind the scenes.

DefiLlama data shows NEAR Intents has processed more than $19 billion in cumulative volume and generated about $32 million in fees. The figures have drawn renewed attention to the protocol after months of limited price movement.

The rally accelerated further after BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes described NEAR, Hyperliquid’s HYPE and ZEC as crypto’s “holy trinity” in a post on social media, before suggesting there’s a “long way to go” in its rally.

NEAR gained about 30% as traders rotated back into tokens tied to artificial intelligence and blockchain infrastructure earlier in the month, while institutional demand has been growing. The Bitwise NEAR Staking ETP listed in Europe has grown to roughly $40 million in assets under management, after seeing $7 million in inflows in a single week.

Investors are also watching an upcoming June network upgrade that introduces dynamic resharding. The change is designed to automatically split network shards as demand increases, potentially improving scalability during periods of heavy usage.

Despite the recent surge, NEAR remains well below its 2022 peak near $20.

NEAR is a layer-1 blockchain focused on applications, AI infrastructure and cross-chain transactions. The network uses a proof-of-stake model and markets itself as a platform designed to simplify interactions across blockchains while handling large volumes of activity through sharding.