NEAR Protocol Enforces Default Perpetual Futures Privacy

NEAR Protocol has updated its perpetual futures to enable private trading by default. This change, which occurred on September 17, ensures that deposits are routed through a confidential shard, concealing ownership and deposit origins from public view.

The feature relies on Confidential Intents and uses a trusted execution environment (TEE) bridge to separate a trader's public account from their trading activity. While the trades themselves remain visible on Hyperliquid's order book, the new system prevents on-chain sleuths from linking specific deposits to individual leveraged bets.

Hyperliquid's perpetual futures engine has been integrated with NEAR since June 9, allowing for deposits from over 35 chains and access to more than 50 trading markets with up to 40x leverage. The protocol's reliance on this infrastructure sidesteps the 'cold-start problem' that often plagues new derivatives platforms.

The update coincided with a significant increase in NEAR's token price, which rallied between 21% and 45% following the announcement. This growth was accompanied by a surge in trading volume, reaching around 120% over 24 hours. The launch also marked a milestone for Confidential Intents, whose total value locked crossed $70 million, triggering an incentive program.