NEAR Price Plunges 4% Amid Technical Correction and Centralization Backlash

NEAR, a cryptocurrency that skyrocketed in August due to hype around ETFs and AI-driven rally, has experienced a significant price drop of approximately 4% over the last 16 hours. This decline is attributed to a technical correction following an extreme rally, which was amplified by large short flows and a new centralization backlash narrative.

The sharp technical correction is considered overdue due to NEAR's RSI being near 85 and its price far above key moving averages. This made a pullback strongly flagged by multiple analyses as 'due' for mean reversion.

A prominent whale, known as Hyperliquid's 'Boomer', exited over $31.1 million in altcoin longs and flipped short ZEC and NEAR, including about $1.47 million of NEAR shorts at roughly $4.63. Various trading accounts publicly posted NEAR short setups and profit targets, adding directional pressure.

A new narrative around NEAR's degree of control over on-chain activity surfaced almost exactly in this window, creating additional uncertainty on top of technical and flow factors. In the aftermath of the September 24 Bitget hack, NEAR's 'Intents' infrastructure was used as part of cross-chain fund tracking, which sparked a visible backlash on X that framed NEAR as 'blockchain police' and 'centralized', denting the previous narrative.