NEAR Drives AI Crypto Rally as Grayscale Sees Sector as Emerging Leaders

NEAR Protocol (NEAR) has been a standout performer in the AI crypto sector, which saw a 54% gain in September, more than double the broader market's rise of 24%. Grayscale, a leading crypto investment firm, highlighted NEAR's strong performance, with the token rising 183% in September.

Other AI-linked tokens, such as Venice (VVV), World (WLD), and Bittensor (TAO), also saw significant gains, with VVV climbing 70%, WLD rising 47%, and TAO adding 37%. NEAR's price has traded over $4, rising over 151% over the past 30 days.

Grayscale's research note, led by Zach Pandl, emphasized the potential role of public blockchains in providing open infrastructure for AI agent payments, identity, and private compute. The firm believes that this could lead to one or more major winners in the AI sector over the next five years.

Despite the rally, NEAR's ecosystem suffered a setback last week, with a bug detected in NEAR Intents' Omni deposit and withdrawal infrastructure interaction with the protocol's smart contract, resulting in losses of about $3.8 million. However, NEAR Intents has assured that the affected funds will be compensated in full.